Amor Fati
by TaikoTurtle
Summary: As the ultimate evil approaches Chance Harbor, the Coven must learn to grow stronger together, however Faye grows closer to a certain blonde than she ever thought was possible. But do the fates have something else in mind for her? Eventual Chamberlake
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:** I do not own anything from The Secret Circle. Wish I sort of did though.

**Author's Note: **I have not written anything in ages. Also, I have not read the books, so my knowledge is based solely off of the five episodes I have seen thus far, so please do not kill me if things are not accurate.

Chapter 1

Faye Chamberlain had always been in charge. Okay, sure, in reality Diana may be the one who is ostensibly head witch of the Coven, but it was Faye who really held her own and pulled the strings inadvertently. If she didn't want something done, she would just walk away and it wouldn't be done, no matter how much Diana complained and stomped her feet. She did have Adam backing her up, but he was really not a threat to Faye, especially since his bark was more often worse than his bite.

But when Cassie Blake moved to Chance Harbor, everything had gone to hell.

With the last witch from the Blake family completing their coven, Diana had jumped at the opportunity to sway her to her side, and of course, being the goodie-two-shoes that she is, Cassie had been swept up under her wing.

No longer did Faye control the place as well as she had before. Cassie sided with Diana on most everything, and Adam wanted what both girls wanted. Faye had Nick and Melissa, but even that wasn't enough after the turn of events that transpired after Cassie had arrived at the harbor. With everyone's powers going out of whack, and apparently the new blonde was the only one who could stop them, Faye reluctantly had to agree to bind the circle, and boy what a mistake that was.

Faye hated not being able to do magic on her own, having to rely on others, and not being stronger than the rest. It irked her beyond reason and made her increasingly more irritable around the others, but what bothered her most was that she absolutely hated being vulnerable. With multiple assaults seemingly coming one after another, she felt as though she was just a normal girl once again when she was unable to fend off her attackers. And after Nick had drowned leaving Melissa emotionally torn, Faye had nobody to turn to. Her best friend was not the same as she was before, and the threats were relentless.

"This is bullshit!"

Faye's voice reverberated through the entire abandoned home, her anger nearly palpable.

"There has to be another way to get stronger other than relying on each other. If another whacko comes strolling into town, I don't want to have to walk around with somebody else chained to my side just so I can perform magic!"

She was storming around the main area, casting glances at the others before continuing on her angry rant. With another man in town, specifically Jake, she once again did not feel safe, as he was mysterious and quite possibly dangerous. Putting aside the fact that she had once been in a relationship with him, she honestly did not want to deal with him, and the trouble that seemed to follow in his wake, again.

"Faye, calm down! We'll figure this out with time. We just need to get used to things and practice more, _then_ we can become stronger and fight whatever evil comes our way," pleaded Diana as she was trying to bring down the fuming witch.

The taller girl shot her a dangerous glance and walked over towards the herbs. She rested her hands on the table, her head slumping down as her fingernails dug into her skin as she clenched her fists. Faye was about to yell back a seething retort, but she felt a hand on her shoulder and she spun around hastily. Her eyes met with a pair of clear blue ones, and she felt the bubbling anger slowly subsiding; those eyes seemed to have that effect on her lately.

"Faye, just listen to Diana, she knows what's best for us all," Faye rolled her eyes but Cassie continued on, "even if she was the one who suggested binding the circle, we are less dangerous to other people now. As long as we stick together on this, then we'll be fine."

Everyone held their breath as they waited for the other girl's reaction, and after a few seconds of silence, Faye clenched her teeth and let out an exasperated sigh.

"Whatever."

She broke her gaze with the shorter blonde girl and walked over to the nearby couch that Melissa was sitting on, plopping herself down lazily while resting her head on her best friend's lap. Melissa gave her a weak smile before listening in on what the others were discussing before Faye had interrupted them earlier.

"I think something big is going to happen soon you guys. I mean, with that demon thing being released earlier, that girl trying to murder Cassie, and with Jake being in town, something evil is definitely coming this way, and I think we need to start preparing ourselves," explained Adam as he looked at everyone around the room.

Diana nodded in agreement and spoke up, "We need to practice with each other. Our skills aren't nearly as developed as they should be, and I think if something happened now, we'd basically be screwed and unprepared."

"No shit Sherlock. I wonder whose fault is that, for binding the circle and making us weaker?"

"Watch it Faye," Adam said, his features scrunching up, as he was growing increasingly annoyed, "and besides, we already went over this. We aren't weaker, we just need to practice with each other before we can start pulling off stronger spells."

Faye rolled her eyes again and closed her eyes. The sun was already setting and everything was aggravating her. If they all wanted to practice so much, why were they just sitting her and talking about it? She wanted some action; she wanted to see them performing magic instead of just discussing about what could be done. Opening her eyes, she looked up at Melissa but her best friend seemed to be spacing out, as she was merely staring up at the ceiling distractedly.

"Well, if we're done here, then I think I'm going to go home, since obviously nothing exciting is happening," said Faye as she leaned up from Melissa's lap and stared at the group.

It was then that she made eye contact with Cassie and her crystal blue eyes. She was beginning to feel light headed, most likely due to sitting up too quickly, but she shook her head quickly as the blonde began to speak.

"Since you're not contributing anything useful, then we don't mind if you just go home."

Faye jumped up off the couch and approached Cassie, never breaking eye contact. She kept getting closer, her heart beating faster, as she finally stopped about a foot away from her. It was as if Faye was going to say something to challenge her, something to shout back in response to her unusually rebellious words, but instead she just exhaled loudly and glared at her before storming off back for home.

"I was stronger on my own before you guys, and I'll be fine on my own without you!" She shouted as she slammed the door on her way out.

The others just let her go on her way, since generally Faye's angry outbursts happened quite often, and they didn't want to incur her wrath any further. In due time, the witch would return and help them when they needed it, but it was just a risky thing to be having her storming around on her power trips too often. Melissa looked at everyone and cast her glance downwards.

"Look, I'll go talk to her. We'll see you all tomorrow," she said quietly. Everyone nodded and began packing up their things, ready to head back to their respective houses.

Melissa gathered her things into her purse and made her way towards Faye's home. She was used to her friend's behavior by now, and knew that even though Faye appeared mad, she was also just looking for someone to reach out to her and understand where she was coming from. Even if it's possibly just a selfish perspective, Faye often needed a lot of reinforcement or someone to just talk to, and that's where Melissa came in.

Knocking on the door to her friend's residence, after waiting a few moments Dawn, Faye's mother, opened the door with a wary look that eventually turned into a bright smile.

"Oh Melissa! Good to see you again, come on in! Faye is upstairs, she just got home a few minutes ago."

"Thanks Mrs. Chamberlain," responded Melissa as she took off her shoes and went upstairs. Dawn looked around outside briefly before closing the door behind her.

Melissa knocked on the door to Faye's room and spoke softly, "Hey, I know you're in there. Lemme in."

"No, go away."

Melissa sighed audibly before opening the door anyways. She was met with the trademark upward glare that Faye gave to everyone before the face cracked into a small grin, "Come here to bug me about getting along with everyone, or are you here to just listen to me rant until your tiny ears fall off?"

The shorter girl shrugged, "Maybe a little bit of both."

Faye smiled wider and sighed as she sat herself down on her bed. Her face quickly changed to that of one of frustration as she threw her hands up before taking a deep breath in.

"I don't get it! I was _so_ strong before we bound the circle, and now I can't even make a tiny candle light itself on my own. This is just… this is just so stupid! I blame Cassie for all of this."

Melissa walked over to her friend's bed and sat down next to her, preparing herself for a long night of talking and calming her friend, "You know, it's not all her fault. We keep telling you all the time that we just need to be with another person to make stronger spells. It's not her fault for all of this happening, you know."

The taller witch rolled her eyes and pouted. She was silent before whispering, "…yeah, I know. I'm just angry since Diana got her way, and now we're all screwed because of it."

Shrugging her shoulders, Melissa looked up at the ceiling and continued on in an encouraging tone, "You know, we can practice together and then once we get stronger before all of them, maybe you can rub it in their faces or something."

Faye laughed at her friend's rare optimism and nodded, "Boy would I just love to shove it in Diana's face when I get better than her. Or wait…" her smile faded into a sinister grin, "I would rather shove it in that Cassie girl's face. She's always proving that she's better than me, and acting all innocent as if she doesn't know what she's doing, but I just know that she really is laughing at me behind my back. There's no way she could have stopped that storm when I couldn't; we were saying the same exact spell!"

Nodding knowingly, Faye looked to her best friend, "Tomorrow, we're going to start practicing together separately from the others. Once we get better than them, we'll surprise them if we ever get attacked again and save their asses when it counts. Maybe _then_ I'll get the respect I deserve."

Melissa nodded in agreement, with a hesitant smile on her face, "Sure Faye, whatever you say."


	2. Chapter 2

**Thanks for all the support you guys! I'll do my best to keep updating the chapters in a timely fashion. ~**

Chapter 2

"Faye, I don't think this is such a good idea."

Melissa and Faye were sitting on the floor in the main room to the abandoned house. There was a circle set up that was comprised of sprinkled salt and a few other crushed herbs with an empty pot in the center containing a minimal amount of soil. Faye was skimming over a piece of paper that was riddled with notes and various additional scribbles and diagrams. She had looked at a page in Diana's book one day and had memorized it, and immediately wrote it down before she forgot it. She had copied it down a bit messily and out of order, but at least it was written verbatim.

Well, for the most part.

"Don't be such a downer Melissa! We'll be fine. I measured everything and crushed the correct amounts of herbs and salt. Now we just need to… uh… do something with the… uh…" Faye glanced back at the notes and scrunched her eyebrows as if it would leader her to concentrate harder.

Eyeing her friend with uncertainty, Melissa tried to peer over at what was on the paper but Faye hastily folded it up before her smaller friend could see anything. Her smile was wide and her eyes were bright as she clapped her hands and rubbed them together in anticipation.

"Alright! So we're going to do this spell, and this is supposedly going to make a small plant bloom from the pot."

They both looked at the empty pot, though Melissa with more skepticism.

"Are you sure this is going to work? I mean, what if something goes wrong? What if you wrote the notes incorrectly? You don't know what this spell can really do, and for all you know it can be some kind of… uh, explosive plant or something."

Faye laughed heartily at hearing her friend's words and just waved her off, "I told you already. Do – not - worry." She paused after each word for extra emphasis. She stared at the pot intently and began instructing Melissa.

"Repeat after me. _Pollulo Fera_, _pollulo fera, pollulo fera_…"

"Are you even pronouncing that right? That's not even in English," said Melissa.

"Just shut up and repeat it, alright?"

Melissa sighed and began to join in on the chant as they concentrated on the pot.

"_Pollulo fera, pollulo fera…"_

They repeated the chant and began to get excited as the salt and herbs began to glow and seemed to funnel to the bottom of the pot. It was a slow process, but they all completely disappeared until they looked as if they had just hidden underneath the pot, so the girls continued the chant. However, after further moments of saying the spell's designated words, nothing else seemed to follow.

Faye eyed the pot angrily before groaning and forming a pout on her face.

"Stupid pot."

It was at that moment that Diana came walking up from behind and noticed the two girls sitting on the floor, staring intently at what appeared to be just a regular flowerpot. She smirked and folded her arms against her chest, standing with her weight leaning to one side.

"Having fun there, Faye? Looks like a very interesting pot to me too."

She was met with a cold, silent glare in response. Melissa picked up the disappointing object and inspected it before shrugging and standing up. She walked over to the herbs area and set the pot down on the windowsill before going back and taking a seat on the couch.

"Where's your lapdog, huh Diana? Doesn't look like you have him on a short leash today, or did you let him out to play with Cassie? Tsk tsk, big mistake, you know…" Faye said with a hint of viciousness behind her words. Diana tried to hide her deepening frown, but Faye knew that she had already struck a chord, as that was indeed a touchy subject for the insecure witch. Her worried frown scrunched up her features further until she just exhaled, obviously irritated, and walked over to rest on the hammock and read her family's book of shadows.

Faye smirked to herself victoriously before looking over the crumpled up piece of paper once more. She could have sworn that she had written everything down correctly, so she didn't know why the spell didn't work. Was it just because her magic, along with Melissa's magic, was not enough to make the spell work? She pursed her lips as she thought through her options and possibilities. Sure, maybe she did need to practice, but what exactly _was it_ that she was supposed to practice? Memorizing the spells' names? Pronouncing things better? Just… being more in tune with the other person? For someone who was supposed to be their leader, Diana sure didn't give them much to go off of other than saying 'do this' but never providing them with the 'how to' part.

She stared down at her diagrams and notes and failed to see where she went wrong. Standing up, she walked over to the pot and looked inside it again. With faint curiosity, and surprise, she noticed that the pot did in fact have a tiny, small red bulb poking its head out through a small bit of soil that was left over on the inside. Excitement began to take over her as she realized that the spell did work, and they had been able to create life out of nothing. True, it wasn't exactly a large plant that she had been expecting, but it was better than nothing.

Faye smiled to herself, and decided not to tell Melissa just yet, since Diana was right near by and she didn't want to risk exposing the fact that she had managed to copy a page out of her precious book of shadows. With her confidence restored, all sorts of new ideas began to dance through her mind, until at that exact moment Diana's phone rang.

"Hello? Wait what? Hey wait, wait, slow down Adam! What's going on? They're doing what? Okay we'll be there in a few minutes!"

The obvious urgency and volume of her voice had caught the attention of both Faye and Melissa, so they had both turned to listen in on the short conversation. After snapping her phone shut, she looked to them both.

"Some stranger is attacking Cassie again! We need to head over to them now and help her and Adam out! He can only do so much, but the person is apparently real strong, so they need us there."

Melissa nodded, sensing the urgency and began making her way to go downstairs, but Faye rolled her eyes before reluctantly saying, "If I _have_ to."

Diana just gave her the look before the three of them made their way over to where Adam said they were located. They traversed through the streets before making it over to the steelworks stockyard where much of the materials and metal piping was held. Once they neared the area, they began to silence their footsteps a bit more as they looked around for the confrontation. If they would be able to surprise the attacker, then perhaps they could band together to catch them off guard and knock them out with a type of stunning spell perhaps.

Sneaking behind a tall pile of a bundle of pipes, they could hear the noises of the fight that was going on between the three. Faye peered around the corner discreetly to get a better view of the conflict and saw that the stranger was a platinum blonde guy with dark almond skin whom she assumed nobody else knew. He was of a moderate build with short, slicked back hair, a white V-Neck shirt, as well as regular dark denim jeans. Standing at height of six foot one, he seemed overall normal in appearance, except for the fact that he was throwing Adam around as if he weighed no more than a feather.

"Adam!"

He hit the ground hard causing him to grunt in pain. He was already bruised pretty badly as he was trying to fend off the mysterious guy while waiting for the rest of the Coven to arrive. Their attacker was merciless in his assault as he continued to withstand burns and blunt force to his body; it was as if he was immune to any kind of damage.

Cassie went rushing to his side to help him up as their assailant slowly approached them in a nonchalant, collected manner.

"You are only making this harder on yourselves," he whispered, his voice deep and smooth.

Adam scrambled to get back up to his feet. Staring at Cassie and then back at the man, he began saying, "_Air around me, I reject. Air around me, I reject. Air around me, I reject!"_

Cassie had joined in, and by the third time they said it, the stranger was pushed back a few feet, his shoes kicking up dust as she skid across the dirt for a few seconds before looking at them with cold eyes.

"Is that really the best you can do?"

He disappeared right before their eyes before reappearing next to Cassie with Adam's neck firmly in his grip. The attacker had lifted him straight off the ground, his feet clearly a good few feet in the air as Adam was grabbing and flailing at the stranger, trying to loosen the deathly choking grip. Cassie screamed, stunned from the suddenness of it all and was kneeling on the ground out of shock. It was then that the three other witches made their entrance.

Diana and Faye came rushing in and slammed themselves into the guy, essentially causing all of them to topple over from the full-bodied tackle. Adam fell to the ground and began coughing roughly while rubbing his throat and trying to catch his breath as Melissa came trailing in and knelt down to make sure they were both okay. She trained her dark brown eyes on Cassie.

"Who is this guy?"

The blonde responded with a frantic shake of her head.

"I have no idea! He came out of nowhere! Adam and I were just talking, and he showed up and just started spouting some nonsense to us about –"

Her words were cut off as they heard the subsequent scream of Faye as she went crashing into a wooden crate, causing her to receive a good amount of cuts and scrapes on her skin, while Diana was flung farther away and was knocked unconscious when she hit her head hard against a metal pole resulting in a sickening, audible _thud_ sound upon impact.

Cassie looked at both girls, to the attacker, and then back to her friends once again. Although she was frightened beyond belief, instinct kicked in, but for some reason her body was making her move to where Faye had crashed into the crate.

Adam's eyes widened upon seeing his girlfriend knocked unconscious, "Diana!" He shouted worriedly before jumping up, totally disregarding his aching throat. He made a dash towards her, but was effortlessly halted by a powerful blow to the chest as the stranger had chosen him to throw a punch at mid-run. From the attacker's strength, Adam went soaring through the air and collided with Melissa, causing the both of them to go tumbling into a few nearby heavy barrels. The two of them were struggling to get up, but they were completely winded from the strike.

By then, Cassie was by Faye's side, "Faye! Faye, are you alright?"

The taller witch just nodded, a small cut above her eyebrow causing a small drip of blood to run down near her eye, "Yeah, yeah, I'm fine, but we have to deal with this guy. What should we do?"

Cassie frowned as the attacker trained his sights on them and began walking slowly towards them with a menacing stride.

"How should I know? Maybe we should… we should…" she frantically scanned her surroundings for anything that they could use against him, but she was not able to think particularly clearly.

"Come on, we can't wait all day here! Just use the same spell you used earlier or something!" shouted Faye as she grabbed Cassie's arm to snap her out of her mental reverie.

Cassie felt as if a jolt of electricity surged through her body the moment Faye grasped her arm. Snapping her head to the side, she stared into Faye's eyes and knew that she had felt it too. In that brief moment, they felt something pass between them as they held their breath before simultaneously turning their heads to stare straight at the assailant, who was now dangerously close.

"_Air around me, I reject!"_

They both shouted it together firmly, but they only said it once, yet that was all it took to cause the stranger's eyes to widen before he went flying through the air like a ragdoll as if hit by a large, invisible hammer, and crashed into a giant stack of crates and piping. The boxes and pipes of various sizes caved in and came collapsing down on his body. Portions of his limbs were visible beneath the stack, but he was unmoving, and presumably knocked out for the time being.

Faye's hand was still gripping Cassie's arm, both girls breathing ragged and shallow. The taller witch was grinning madly because the sensation that had rushed through her when they performed the spell was more intoxicating and exhilarating than she had ever felt before. She hadn't experienced that type of power ever since they had bound the circle, and she was thoroughly surprised because she thought she would never feel that ever again.

Cassie slowly turned to look at Faye, a stunned look plastered all over her normally calm and reserved features. Her blue eyes were wide, cheeks heavily flushed, and her mouth was slightly agape as she failed to form words to express her thoughts. They continued to look into each other's eyes, not quite sure of what had transpired between them.

"Did… did you feel that too?" whispered Cassie.

Faye coughed and said nothing, but then a small smile slowly crept up on her lips.

"Sure did."

They smiled at each other silently, a rare sparkle glinting in Faye's eyes as Melissa came jogging up to them.

"Are you two alright?"

Both girls broke eye contact and nodded their heads. Faye's face immediately went back to her normal expression as if her mask of superiority and condescension came back up.

"Pfft, of course we're all right! Did you not just see that wicked spell we used to mess that guy up?" Faye retorted. Melissa merely shrugged in response as Adam came walking up to them with the unconscious Diana in his arms.

"We should get out of here before that guy comes to. He's too dangerous for us to fight right now in our current state," he said, concern strewn across his face.

Everyone nodded and began making their way back to the house. The whole time while they were walking, Cassie kept casting odd glances at Faye, who would in turn give her an equally odd glance, which eventually turned into a frown that silently said '_what are you looking at me like that for?'_ which would then cause Cassie to look away.

Upon reaching the abandoned home, the Coven went to the main room to begin getting themselves fixed up. Melissa was able to find a first aid kit and left it on the table before going to search for additional gauze. Adam laid Diana down on the hammock to rest and then left the room to go find a blanket for her as well, leaving Cassie and Faye alone on the couch. Reaching for the medical kit, Cassie grabbed the disinfectant and cotton swabs before looking at Faye, who responded with a deadpan expression.

"What?" asked Faye.

Cassie shook her hands and motioned towards the cotton swabs.

"Give me your arms, I've got to clean them."

Faye just pulled away and looked at her incredulously, "No, I'm fine! Don't be touching me with your- ow!"

Cassie had shut the other girl up by dabbing the hydrogen peroxide-saturated cotton ball to Faye's forehead, pressing rather roughly at the cut. She was smirking, as she wasn't particularly trying to be careful, as the other girl was being quite stubborn. Faye shut her eyes in pain before pursing her lips, her expression slowly turning into that of her trademark angry pout. She sat there noiselessly as Cassie continued to clean off some of the blood and apply band-aids or gauze where needed. When she had come to Faye's arms, the blonde grasped the other girl's forearm and felt a familiar tingle begin to reverberate through her skin. She chanced a look up and noticed Faye staring straight at her with a dark grin before breaking the silence.

"You know, when we did that spell earlier against that guy, it was pretty impressive…" Faye started saying slowly and quietly, "… and I must admit, I've done some pretty awesome things on my own before."

Cassie focused on cleaning the small cuts on Faye's arm, but with each time their skin made contact, small waves of a weird, but comforting, sensation kept reverberating with each touch. She refused to look up in to Faye's eyes as the other girl spoke.

Noticing that the smaller witch was not really listening, Faye narrowed her eyes, stood up, and walked over to grab an empty pot.

"Hey wait, I wasn't done yet!" protested Cassie as the other girl began grabbing various herbs and mashing them up. She had no idea what Faye was doing, but she looked pretty intent in her movements. After a few moments, a small circle of salt and crushed herbs was set up around an empty pot on the floor. Her wounds forgotten and half-treated, Faye sat down in front of the set up and motioned for Cassie to sit down next to her. Cassie was taken aback and shook her head furiously, which then caused Faye to slam her hand down onto the floor.

"Sit. NOW!"

The blonde's eyes widened in shock before she hesitantly obliged. She was looking around, hoping that somebody would have come back by now, but to no avail; only the sleeping Diana was present in the room. Faye glared at her and began chanting without warning, keeping her focus directed on the pot.

"_Pollulo fera. Pollulo fera. Pollulo fera."_

Faye cast a dangerous glance at Cassie, causing the blonde witch to immediately join in on the chant. As soon as she began speaking, the salt and herbs glowed vividly and were sucked straight into the pot. Faye's lips upturned into a wicked smile before the pot itself exploded upwards with a vibrant and huge red flower the size of a small child. The plant that was produced was so large that it caused the pot to shatter, making dirt and soil sprinkle the surrounding area.

Adam came rushing into the area, shortly followed by Melissa, as the alarming noise had surely alerted them. He stared at the flower and then to the girls sitting nearby it. Faye, with her sly grin, and Cassie with a slightly confused, yet curious expression, were an odd sight for him to see, and had a feeling something bizarre had just happened.

Adam stared at the pair, "Okay, what is going on here?"

Faye shrugged, "Beats me."

Cassie turned her head to look at Faye with disbelief, which caused Faye to promptly widen her eyes and minutely shake her head signaling for her not to tell the truth.

"Uhh… I tried to heal Faye's cuts with a spell and… I guess I made a flower instead?" said Cassie with a questioning tone.

Silence.

"Okay Cassie you are a horrible liar, that is the worse excuse I've ever heard," Faye groaned and got up defeatedly and dusted off her shorts, "so I wanted to make a flower bloom with magic, big whoop. Are we done with the interrogations here?"

Melissa immediately knew what Faye was talking about and made a little gasping noise. How had Faye and Cassie's flower gotten so huge when the same spell that she did earlier with Faye had made nothing more than a tiny bulb? Slightly hurt, and a little jealous that her best friend had achieved something greater with someone else, Melissa stormed off to another room while Adam walked up to Faye.

He pointed at the flower warningly, "You've got to be careful Faye. You don't know what you're doing! Cassie could have been seriously hurt because of this. She was sitting right next to you!"

"Yeah, I know," shrugged Faye, "she helped me do it."

She winked at Cassie causing the blonde to blush under the sudden attention. Adam growled in a frustrated manner before walking off. Looking at the shorter witch, Faye grinned; a brilliant plan had developed in her head.

"Hey Cassie, I've got a proposition for you…"


	3. Chapter 3

**Thanks for all of the reviews! I haven't been updating as quickly as I thought I would, but thanks for all of the encouraging words. **

Chapter 3

Faye slammed her locker shut with a loud bang.

"God, she's so stupid!"

Faye was raging around the hallways at school, not particularly caring who was staring at her. Melissa was just walking alongside her just nodding and agreeing so that her friend would vent her anger and eventually calm down.

"I just asked her to practice spell casting with me, and what does she say? Noooo, I'm Cassie Blake, I'm too good for you! I'm too awesome, too perfect, too pretty, too blonde, yada yada yada. Like, really? What is her problem?"

"Shhh, Faye, watch what you're saying!" Melissa looked around, as Faye was not exactly paying much attention to her words, "We're in public, remember?"

Faye's eyebrows furrowed irritably as she paused and looked at her friend. Massaging her temples calmly, she sighed with frustration and glared at a nearby freshman that was giving her an odd look. She gave him a snarky tilt of her head and narrowed her eyes before opening the door to the science classroom.

She dropped her bag and books down on the table abruptly causing a few students to jump from the sudden noise. There were still a few minutes before class was supposed to start, so the few people who were already in the classroom were regretting coming early, as they could instantly tell that the school's bad girl was ticked and ready to explode at any moment.

They were sitting at the large black desk and began pulling out there notebooks, getting ready for class.

"So she really told you no?" asked Melissa curiously.

Faye rolled her eyes and pulled out a pen, tapping it aggravatingly, "Yeah, she told me no. I don't even know why though, because we did that super strong spell together."

Melissa's gaze faltered for a split second, "… You mean that flower spell?"

Faye shook her head, "No, it was when we were fighting that one dude. We used the same spell that her and Adam used earlier, but it was practically ten times stronger when we did it. I don't know what happened, but I felt this… this weird, power surge or something. It was definitely super cool, so I figured that I should practice with her again and see if the same thing would happen because, no offence," she placed her hand on Melissa's arm, "when we did that spell, it did practically nothing."

The smaller witch exhaled glumly, but gave her friend a meek smile, "Yeah… I know." Secretly, she was a bit jealous that her best friend was taking an interest in Cassie, but Faye was too caught up in her own plans to notice.

Faye smiled cheerfully, "But I'm going to ask her again today and see if she had a change of heart."

Melissa stayed silent and looked off to the side, too busy dwelling on her own thoughts. When the classroom door opened again, Cassie came walking through and instinctively Melissa fixated a small frown at her. The blonde merely smiled back at her, completely oblivious, until she passed by Faye and that expression instantly diminished. The taller brown-haired witch tilted her head and put on her best fake smile.

"So, you've come back to say you would be more than happy to help me out?"

With a deadpan expression, Cassie retorted, "No, Faye, I'm not going to help inflate your ego; you're on your own."

Faye sighed regretfully, "Well, then you're also missing out on improving your own abilities, which is such a shame. I mean, we could totally become so much stronger than we already are…"

The blonde smirked, "Yeah, good luck with that, but you'll be getting there on your own because I'm not going to play your selfish game for more power."

And with that, Cassie took a seat at the front and put on her safety goggles just as the teacher walked through the door while the bell rang, signaling the start of class.

"Alright everybody, today we'll be doing dissections, so if you're feeling a bit squeamish, then I don't mind if you sit this project out and take a breather. The materials are here at the front of the classroom, so help yourselves to the supplies. I want you to work in pairs, and at the end write a report on your findings after following the instructions."

A few of the students groaned in protest upon hearing the day's assignment, but some of the other kids were happily excited to begin cutting open the test subjects of the day, which turned out to be baby squid.

Upon going up to the front of the room to get the items, Melissa looked to Faye, "So do you want to do the cutting, or should I?"

Faye began gathering her own set of materials before responding, "Sorry, but I'm going to go pair up with Cassie on this. I've got to convince her to practice with me. You understand where I'm coming from, don't you?"

The shorter girl sighed, her expression stoic, yet on the inside she was crushed even more. She was being tossed aside in favor of Cassie once again, and it was starting to hurt more than ever. Nevertheless, she also knew her friend and how much gaining power and control meant to her, so she nodded silently and just smiled.

"Yeah… that's fine. I'll just go pair up with someone else today."

Faye gave her a brief hug before picking up the supplies and making her way towards Cassie, who was alone at her table just now getting her notebook for notes. She glanced up and narrowed her eyes in a distrustful manner.

"And to what do I owe this honor? Do you want to grace me with your almighty presence and knowledge of squid anatomy?"

Faye shrugged nonchalantly and thought up of a plan, "Naw, the teacher just wanted me to pair up with someone new today."

Cassie glanced around and noticed that everybody was with the same people they always chose all year, and she turned back to look at Faye. She knew something was fishy but she scoffed and motioned for her to sit down. They began reading through the instructions and read the first step, which was to cut down the center of the squid's body carefully to remove the outer portion. Faye made a disgusted face and handed the scalpel to Cassie.

"Ew no, that's all you," she said.

The blonde snorted, "Oh how generous of you. Fine, I'll cut it."

They proceeded to follow the instructions for the most part in silence, but with a bit of friendly banter here and there. It was bearable for the both of them, and for a moment, Cassie was starting to forget what a stuck up witch that Faye was. Every now and then, Faye would throw in a comment about magic in an attempt to get Cassie to agree to help her out, but the words would either be ignored or completely shut down. For the most part it was fine until towards the end, when they were instructed to write their initials on a piece of paper using the ink sack and a bone shaped like a quill, Faye grinned slyly.

She began chanting quietly beneath her breath as Cassie reached for the quill, but on its own, the bone began to hover. Cassie's eyes widened and she looked at Faye and shook her head.

"What are you doing? Stop it, someone's going to see you!"

The quill began poking at the ink sack, trying to get it to puncture slightly so that she can get some of the fluid on the writing utensil as Faye blew her off, "Relax, it'll be fine. Everyone's too busy doing their own stuff to even notice. Now if I can just get this stupid thing to poke the ink…"

Faye was using her fingers to manipulate the quill's motion as she was controlling the direction. Squinting with concentration, she kept poking at the ink sack gingerly. The teacher was walking through the aisles, inspecting all of the groups and Cassie began to panic.

"Stop it Faye! The teacher is coming towards us!"

"No, lay off me! I've almost got it."

She kept moving her fingers until Cassie got fed up and grabbed her hand that was controlling the squid's bone quill. Immediately after their skin came into contact with each other, they both felt the jolting sensation ripple through their bodies and the quill pierced straight into the ink sack, causing the jet black fluid to spray onto Cassie's beige-colored blouse. Her face went into shock as she threw her hands up out of surprise. She let out a little squeak before her expression changed from shock to one of anger. Throwing an angry glance at the now snickering Faye, she growled under her breath.

"Why do you always have to do that? Look at what you did, you totally ruined my shirt!"

"Yeah, but it was pretty funny," retorted Faye.

For a split second, Cassie's infuriated gaze shifted intensity and her eyes flashed an onyx black, which caused Faye to stop her laughing momentarily. It was as if time had stopped as she was looking into Cassie's dark glare before she felt a sharp pain splash across her lower neck area.

"Ouch!"

Suddenly there was a rather deep cut a few inches long running across Faye's collarbone area, angled upward diagonally, that was beginning to ooze out blood at a steady rate. She looked at Cassie in astonishment before the stinging pain began to really register in her brain. On the other hand, the blonde witch's eyes went back to their usual crystal blue, but her expression changed to slight horror once more.

"Oh my God Faye, what happened?" She began to reach out to the taller witch, but her hands were slapped away as Faye refused her help while trying to stop the blood flow with her other hand.

"Don't touch me!"

The blood was beginning to soak through her shirt and drip onto the table, which the teacher, upon making his round towards their table, was suddenly alerted.

"Oh goodness not another lab accident. What happened?"

Faye was already getting up and out of her seat on her way out the door. Cassie shouted after her, "Wait, Faye!"

The blonde ran after her as the classroom door shut behind them both. Adam, who had been watching the whole thing, talked to the teacher and tried to somehow explain to him that it was a freak accident involving the quill. After the teacher sort of bought the incredibly vague story, Adam looked up at the ceiling and saw the scalpel embedded in the soft square tile. He had seen the ink squirt on Cassie's shirt and was about to interrupt them, but almost as quickly as it had stained her shirt, the scalpel that was lying on their table had shot up and sliced through Faye's collarbone before getting stuck in the ceiling like a bullet.

Faye was storming down the empty hallway, leaving small droplets of blood every now on then to drip onto the cold floor. Cassie was running to catch up to her, each footstep leaving an echoing pitter patter through the empty area.

"Faye!"

She grabbed her shoulder causing the girl to spin around hastily and slap away the hand, "Leave me alone Cassie. You know what, looks like I don't want your help anymore if you're just going to try and kill me every time I want to do magic, okay?"

"I'm sorry, it was an accident I didn't mean it!" Cassie pleaded, her eyebrows upturned apologetically, "I… I don't know what happened, I swear! It's just that I-"

"Whatever," Faye cut her off mid-sentence before continuing on her way to the nurse's office, leaving the blonde standing alone in the hallway.

Cassie sighed heavily and the school bell rang as students flooded out of the classroom doors leaving the two to be lost in the sea of students.

After that, Faye was in the nurse's office the rest of the school day leaving Cassie feeling increasingly guiltier. Even though Faye was a pain to her sometimes with her reckless and selfish ways, she never would want to wish any harm on her. And, although she would never admit it to the others, she admired her blunt honesty and independence. It was true that she was intrigued with what was going on between them, as it was becoming increasingly more and more difficult to ignore the weird sensations she would feel when coming into contact with Faye. It would lead to extraordinary magic, but as witnessed from these past events, it would also bring danger and trouble as well, which is what made her hesitant to practice with her.

When school was out, the Circle lingered a bit near the flagpoles, waiting for each other and eager to return to the abandoned home. Adam glanced at his watch while looking around since everybody was gathered except for Faye.

Melissa bit her lip before rubbing her neck, "You know, she's probably still in the nurse's office or something. You guys go on ahead, I'll wait for her." She shot Cassie an accusatory look before disappearing back into the building leaving Adam, Cassie, and Diana to head off on their own. As the trio was walking through the brush and forest, they were all pretty much silent the entire time. Cassie's face was slightly crestfallen the entire time, which Adam figured was due to the events earlier in the day. As they kept walking through the forest, he broke the silence.

"You know it was just an accident. You don't have to feel bad about it Cassie."

Her head snapped up out of her inner turmoil as she grimaced slightly, "Even still, I hurt her Adam! I don't even know what happened, but that cut just appeared out of nowhere."

The house came into view and he moved a branch out of the way. Shaking his head he looked at her with his cool blue eyes, "The scalpel is what cut her, Cassie. I think the stray magic in the room from when you were angry caused it to lift up and hit her; I saw it embedded in the ceiling afterwards."

"So it was my fault," she sighed.

"He never said it wasn't. What he's saying is that you shouldn't be so hard on yourself," said Diana.

Cassie didn't respond back. She understood that it was an accident, but the fact that it happened is what made her upset, because if she couldn't control her outbursts, then more people were bound to get hurt.

The three of them made it to the building and gathered around the main area, ready to discuss the attack from a few days ago. Cassie was still slightly distracted, but was still listening in on what Adam and Diana were discussing.

"So what do we know about that guy who attacked us?" asked Diana.

Adam sat back on the couch and crossed his arms, "Well, besides his appearance, we don't know anything. He's just an average Joe with blonde hair, pretty tall, and dark skin."

"Not to mention freakishly strong," piped up Cassie.

"Yeah, no need to remind me about that," Adam said jokingly.

"Well, as far as we know, he may still be out there. I mean, when we left, I'm pretty sure he was just unconscious from our counterattack, but he may still be hunting us down. There may be even more people, and we don't know who they are, or what they want," Diana explained with a worried expression on her face.

"And we don't even know how to fight them off. That guy had superhuman strength, was incredibly fast, and it seemed like no matter what we did, it didn't phase him at all," added Cassie.

Adam looked at her with a small grin, "Well, whatever you and Faye did sure seemed to work pretty well. What exactly did you guys do?"

Cassie was about to respond but another voice spoke up from the doorway.

"We did the same exact spell as you, but we just did it better."

Faye and Melissa came walking in and settled down on another couch nearby. Faye laid down on her back letting her legs dangle over the armrest as she rested her head on her best friend's lap. Cassie was looking at the large white bandage that was covering up the cut from earlier, and then she accidentally made eye contact with Faye, the deep intensity of Faye's eyes causing her to immediately look away. The blonde blushed out of embarrassment, as well as shame knowing that she was the one who had caused the cut. It was awkwardly silent for a few more moments until Adam coughed and began speaking.

"Well, then it seems like we need to just learn stronger spells, since magic is able to work against this guy. Any suggestions?"

Melissa shrugged as she was stroking Faye's brunette hair, "Well, we should probably try and find out more information on this guy so we can know how to deal with him better."

Adam nodded, "Okay, that could work. I'll try asking around to see if anybody has any information on a new person coming into town matching his description. Anything else?"

Diana immediately added in with a brightened expression, "I can draw up a training regimen and have us rotate practice partners, that way we can strengthen our spells that we know right now."

Faye groaned loudly and rolled her eyes, "Ugh, I've got a better idea. How about we look in your family's book of shadows and find a kick ass spell that can do away with this guy in one blow and we can be done with this crap in an instant."

"No Faye, we went over this already," Diana shot back, "we don't know what kind of magic is in that book, let alone what those kind of spells can do. It's too dangerous to try and practice something we don't know."

"Well if we stick to practicing the same boring old spells over and over, we're never going to learn something new and we'll never get stronger!" Faye snapped back.

"If we practice like I say, then those same spells will increase in magnitude!" said Diana exasperatedly.

"Oh great, what're we going to do, lift him to death?" said Faye sarcastically.

"Why you…"

The bickering went on for quite a while until Adam eventually intervened. While they both raised valid points, they weren't actually progressing anywhere in terms of finding a solution to the bad guy problem. The circle talked extensively in terms of what needed to be done, but at this point, they agreed that they needed the rest of the circle to be there, which meant they needed to find Jake who was missing at this point. Melissa was a bit resistant when the idea of filling in Nick's spot was brought up though.

As the talking went on, eventually the sun began to set, and the coven decided that it was time to go home before it got too dark to walk safely outside. While the others were exiting the old home, Faye grabbed Melissa's arm and pulled her back inside. She had a devious look on her face as she motioned for her to close the door. With everyone gone, Faye pulled out a piece of paper from her notebook and looked at her best friend.

"So I've got another spell that I'd like you to help me out with."

Melissa folded her arms, "Is it copied from Diana's book again?"

Faye nodded, "Yep, it's another spell. I swear, Diana needs to find a new hiding spot, because I'm pretty sure she thinks that spot is still safe. But anyways, how about it?"

The shorter witch looked hesitant at first, but she was just glad that Faye had come to her first and not gone to Cassie like she had been recently. Nodding in agreement she smiled, "Sure, why not?"

Faye smiled and jumped up and down before giving her a hug. She gathered a few materials and some candles before reading over the paper she had that contained the instructions on how to do the spell. Melissa tried to take a peek at it.

"So, what does this spell do?" she asked.

Faye shrugged, as she set up the candles in a circular fashion, "Heck if I know. I think it's a supplemental spell that temporarily boosts cognitive functions, or something like that." She started lighting the candles but Melissa started to feel a bit skeptical, seeing as how the last spell they performed didn't really seem to work.

"You sure this spell is legit?" asked Melissa.

"Yeah, it'll be fine, trust me," said Faye.

They sat down across from each other, the glow of the light from the candles danced across their features while casting faint shadows around the room. Faye looked at her best friend and nodded, so they both took a deep breath before chanting the words that Faye had written down on the piece of paper.

"_Quiesco eternus, quiesco eternus, quiesco eternus…_"

They continued to chant, but Faye wasn't feeling any different. The candlelight flickered fleetingly, and for a moment, she thought something exciting was going to happen.

But instead, Melissa's body went limp and she crumpled to the floor motionless.

Faye stopped chanting and her eyes went wide. A slow feeling of panic was beginning to bubble in the pit of her stomach.

"Melissa…?"

Her best friend wasn't showing any signs of motion whatsoever, and the feeling of fear began to overtake her whole being. Her arms were shaking as she scooted over to her friend and began rustling her arm.

"Hey, joke's over, you can get up now."

Her eyes began to tear up as her voice trembled weakly.

"Melissa, this isn't funny anymore, get up!"

Nothing.

No movement, no noises, absolutely nothing. The only thing that was keeping Faye from losing it was that Melissa was still breathing, but besides that, it was almost as if her whole body just shut down. Silent tears began to trickle down her cheeks as Faye fumbled for her phone in her pocket. Carefully contemplating who to call, she clumsily dialed the first number that came to mind.

"Hey, i-it's me. I… need your h-help _now._ And don't…don't t-tell anyone."

About twenty minutes past until a figure came rushing up the stairs and into their abandoned home.

There stood Cassie with a worried look as she saw Faye cradling an unmoving Melissa in her lap, tears rolling down her cheeks. The blonde's eyes widened.

"What happened?"

Faye sniffled, ready to respond, but she refused to look Cassie in the eyes.

"We were doing a spell, but in the middle of it, she just stopped moving," she then looked up at the blonde witch, her eyes glistening and her voice frantic, "I didn't want this to happen to her! She's my best friend, and she's always there for me, and yeah, sometimes I don't always treat her the best, but she's never left my side. Now look what I did to her!"

She hugged her motionless best friend tighter than before and began to cry audibly, her tears streaming down her face unflatteringly.

"You've got to help me," she whimpered quietly.

Cassie knelt down next to them and looked Faye in the eye, her gaze sympathetic. She briefly looked down to her collarbone and saw the bandage, which was tinted a slight reddish hue, most likely from the cut having opened up once again. Knowing that she owed the other girl, she nodded firmly.

"I'll help you."


	4. Chapter 4

**In regards to whether or not Cassie and Faye may or may not be related, I'm just going to treat this story as if they aren't. I'm just anxiously waiting for the next Secret Circle episode to find out. Been totally having writer's block, but thanks for all the reviews so far!**

Chapter 4

"You're going to have to tell her eventually."

It was early the next morning, the sun barely permeating the house with its morning glow as the two girls sat, buried in a pile of papers and Cassie's Book of Shadows. She had gone back home to retrieve her book to see if there were any interesting spells in it that may refer to the one Faye had used, or if there was some type of remedy at all for what had happened to Melissa.

"No, there's absolutely _no_ _way_ I'm telling Diana that I had looked into her book. She'd totally throw a fit and then I'll never be able to look at it again! She's going to change her stupid hiding spot for the book. We can figure this out on our own."

Cassie was sitting mere inches away from Faye and she turned her head to look at her, concern clearly in her blue eyes.

"You know, she may know how to fix this mess," Cassie locked gazes with her and Faye's eyelids fluttered slightly before the blonde continued, "and do you really want to jeopardize Melissa's health because of your own pride?"

They stared at each other for a few more moments before Faye looked away and sighed. She glanced at Melissa lying silently on the couch where they had moved her earlier in the night. She hated it when Cassie was right, but it was her best friend's life at stake and that's what really mattered.

She had a slight smirk on her face as she nudged Cassie in the shoulder playfully while rolling her eyes.

"Fine, whatever."

Throughout the night, they had been civil while looking through files in order to come up with a solution to the spell. Both Cassie and Faye had started to enjoy each other's company, although they would never even begin to admit it to anybody. When Faye didn't have anybody around that she had to keep up her bad girl persona, she was actually quite bearable and had considerably nice one on one conversation.

"I'll text Adam and Diana to come here when they're free, but I'm not going to tell them where or how I came across the spell."

Faye reached across Cassie to get her phone and her hand brushed across her wrist causing the tingling feeling to pass through them. She paused for a short second before grabbing her phone and furiously going into a silent I'm-going-to-ignore-what-just-happened mode.

The blonde frowned before looking at Faye. The taller witch was acting as if the phone in her hands was the most interesting thing in the world until Cassie decided to try something. She needed to find something out, and this weird feeling that was passing between them every time they got close was beginning to bug her. She reached out her hands and grasped both of Faye's wrists, who instantly dropped her phone from the pulsating warmth that enveloped her being.

Not releasing her wrists, Cassie looked at Faye with her crystal blue eyes.

"You can feel that too, can't you?"

Faye could only nod dumbly, unable to really form coherent sentences as Cassie refused to let go of the grip.

"What is this? You have to tell me what's going on here!"

"I don't know alright!" Faye yanked her wrists away, "All I know, is that every time you're nearby I can feel this… this weird sensation. It's like a weird tingling feeling, and when we perform magic together, it's way more powerful than with anybody else, but I don't know why it only happens with you."

Cassie slowly inched closer to Faye and slowly reached for her hands. At first Faye backed away, but as their hands came into contact, she warily looked up and stared back at her.

"It doesn't hurt, does it?" Cassie asked.

Faye shook her head. She was looking down curiously as their hands stayed connected.

"It feels warm and inviting. It actually feels pretty nice…" she lifted her head and made eye contact with Cassie. They stared intensely at each other, but she was now incredibly aware of their hand contact, so she involuntarily blushed and pulled away. Cassie did the same before awkwardly picking up her book and pretending to shuffle through the pages.

"Well, looks like we have another mystery on our hands, huh," chuckled Cassie embarrassedly.

Faye nodded, "Yeah, yeah, of course. I'm uh… going to finish texting them now."

"Wait!"

Faye stopped mid-text and looked over at Cassie before sighing, "What?"

Cassie was pointing at the page she had been idly flipping through and pointed at a specific page. It looked like it was about some sort of sleep, however the page itself was not translated, so she couldn't read it besides trying to decipher the pictures.

"Maybe you don't have to call them. I think I might've found something, but I can't read it. If I can get my grandma to-"

"Oh hell no," Faye interjected, "we are not getting Grammy Blake to come and get all up in our business.

Cassie grabbed hold of Faye's hands and pleaded with her, "Come on, my grandma knows way more about magic than we do and we can help solve this issue without getting Adam and Diana involved. Plus, maybe she can tell us about what's going on with this weird connection we have."

The tingling vibrations were messing with Faye's mind as she finally nodded her head, "Okay, okay fine, you can call her over, just stop getting all touchy feely and stuff."

Cassie quickly called her grandmother and the two waited a while. In the span of waiting, Adam had called Cassie, but she played it cool and told him that she was busy for the morning, and he didn't seem to question it.

Jane entered the abandoned home with her bag of magical runes and items as she approached the two girls.

"Where is the girl?"

Cassie pointed to the couch and Jane immediately went over to inspect her. Upon a few minutes of excruciating silence, she sighed heavily and turned around with a stern look on her face.

"Who did this?"

Faye smiled sheepishly and raised her hand before she quickly shook her hands defensively, "I didn't mean to though. We were just practicing spells together, and then she just went unconscious or something and she wouldn't wake up. I kept shaking her and stuff, but I don't know what happened."

Jane walked around the papers scattered on the floor and picked up a particular paper. It was the sheet that had Faye's notes scribbled all over it and she nodded knowingly.

"Did you two even know what you were doing?"

Faye rolled her eyes, "Uh no. That's why we were practicing. We were trying to use new spells."

The older Blake just shook her head, "Maybe we should have given you kids more guidance. The spell that you two used is an ancient spell that is meant in times of dire need when a witch is caught and needs to protect his or her mind from invasion. What happens is that the witch basically shuts their body down, which also closes the mind off as well, so I guess you can say she's in an eternal sleep. It's a defense mechanism used in older times during war when one is caught as a prisoner, but it has no place in this present day time."

Faye rolled her eyes, "Okay, blah di-blah blah, that was a whole lot of stuff that I only sort of understand. All I care about is can this be reversed?"

Cassie nudged the taller witch in the side and Jane nodded before continuing, "It is indeed reversible, however it takes powerful magic to break the spell, incredibly powerful magic. You would need your full circle here to pull it off."

Cassie grumbled, "Well, Jake isn't here, so does that mean we're out of luck?"

Faye smirked and elbowed her friend, "Why so glum huh? Sad your blonde bombshell is gone with the big baddies?"

The younger blonde just playfully shoved her friend back before producing the page from the book of shadows to her grandma, "Is this a spell that can help us?"

Jane looked at the page and her expression seemed to drop, but then she smiled and shook her head, "No, that is a quite different charm. The spell we need is not in our family's book, but luckily it is one that I happen to know. However like I said earlier, we cannot perform this spell due to the sheer magic strength that is necessary to perform it."

"How do we do it?" asked Faye.

The elder laughed amusedly, "The spell you would use would be _frangere_, however it requires much magical force and mental stamina, something that is quite out of your league at the moment, I regret to say."

"Worth a shot to me," Faye said casually.

Jane looked at the dark-haired witch taken aback, "Did you not just hear what I said? As much as I would like her to get better, this kind of magic would just cause you to drain your energy until you pass out from exhaustion."

Faye stared back at her with determination, "I don't mind a little nap. Besides, it's better than not trying at all."

She walked over to her best friend who was still in her peaceful, motionless location on the couch. Running her hand along her arm, she spoke softly, "I'll make this right again, I swear."

Looking back at Jane, she asked, "What do I need to do?"

"What a stubborn girl," Jane said to herself before walking over, "just place your hand on her forehead and repeat the word _frangere_, but I'm telling you, I don't believe it will be of much good."

Faye just shrugged her off and placed her hand on her friend's forehead as instructed. After a few seconds of bracing herself, she began to repeat over and over, "_Frangere… frangere… frangere…_"

At first, nothing ostensibly was happening, but with each second, Faye's hand began to glow a dim fluorescent sapphire color. Beads of sweat were forming on her brow as she continued to chant and keep up the spell, but she could quickly feel herself draining. Her head was spinning, and she felt her pulse quickening, but she knew it wasn't enough to bring Melissa back. She was refusing to give up, but her vision was darkening and she didn't know what else she could do.

It was then that she felt a weight on her hand and her vision became clear once again.

Cassie had knelt down beside her and overlaid her hand on Faye's, and it felt like there was a resurgence of energy flowing between them. Both their breathing was ragged, but the sapphire glow was luminous and vibrant as the two of them continued to chant the spell's words over and over.

Behind them, Jane was observing the whole scene with extreme astonishment, because she could tell that the spell was working. What concerned her most was how the two girls seemed to harbor so much power together. Such strength was normally reserved for entire circles, and on occasion those who were destined to be together. The latter option as a possibility piqued her curiosity.

The two girls had drops of sweat trickling down the sides of their faces, both near to the point of passing out, when Melissa's eyelids flickered open slowly. Seeing her friend coming to, Faye released her palm from her forehand and crumpled to the floor in exhaustion from overexerting herself. Cassie was breathing heavily, but remained conscious as Melissa gingerly rubbed her head and sat up. She looked utterly confused, but more so drowsy as she blinked a few more times.

"Wha… what happened?" she asked.

Cassie wiped her own forehead off with the sleeve of her blouse and smiled wearily, "It's a long story."

Melissa cocked her eyebrow curiously while Jane picked up her bag of magical artifacts and began making her way out.

"Well, I'm glad to see that you're awake now. Consider yourself quite a lucky young lady to have friends like Cassie and Faye."

Cassie stood up and hugged her grandma before she left and began explaining everything to Melissa from the beginning of where the spell went wrong, to what exactly the spell was capable of, to the part where they solved the problem without having to alert Diana that Faye goes snooping around in her book of shadows every now and then. The whole time, Faye was knocked out cold on the floor, so Melissa draped a blanket over her friend.

"The weirdest thing is that my grandma said that the spell could only be done with a whole circle, but Faye and I did the spell on our own. And the only side effect was… well, you know."

She pointed to the sleeping girl on the floor and smiled, "She's pretty tired from doing the spell to break the one that was placed on you. You should have seen how concerned she was about helping you, so much so that she even asked me for help."

Melissa felt an overwhelming sense of fondness for Faye upon hearing how much her best friend really did care for her. Maybe she was a bit jealous at how much Faye was trying to practice with Cassie, but in the end, she really did look out for her too. She shrugged indifferently.

"You'd be surprised. Faye has been trying to think of ways to get you to practice magic with her this whole week. I have absolutely no idea what makes you so special, but she was definitely going out of her way to grab your attention, but it looks like she finally got her wish."

Cassie digested what Melissa was telling her and she looked down at the sleeping witch. Did it really matter so much to her who she practiced with?

After another few minutes of chatting about what had occurred, Melissa decided to make her way home. She offered to take Faye home, but Cassie shook her head, "It's alright, I'll stay here with her until she wakes up. You should get going."

The blonde sat on the floor and leaned her back against the couch and propped Faye's head on her lap. The brown-haired witch rustled a bit in her sleep from the movement, but eventually settled back down. Cassie delicately brushed the sleeping witch's hair out of the way and began to welcome the warm vibrations that resulted from their contact.

Faye turned again in her sleep before opening her eyes gradually and looked straight into a pair of familiar blue ones. She smirked groggily.

"I feel like I have a monster hangover."

Cassie chuckled and continued to play with her hair around full well knowing that they both would be feeling the heat as her fingertips brushed her skin.

"Well, good news. The spell my grandma gave you did work, so Melissa is at home now. So I guess if it makes you feel better, we pulled off an near impossible feat on our own."

Faye grinned through her drowsy daze, "Sweet. Told you we would be two powerful badass witches."

The blonde laughed playfully, "Yeah, well, miss master of all things magic, it also drained a lot out of you, so you should go back to sleep for the moment before you get up and walk around."

The dark-haired girl looked up at her in all seriousness and smiled genuinely for once, "Thanks for helping me out."

Cassie leaned down and placed a small kiss on her forehead as an innocent "you're welcome" gesture, but could feel the immediate warmth and an odd gravitation from the small act. Pulling away briefly, she looked into Faye's darker eyes and felt a familiar feeling tugging at her heart. It felt like lava was surging through her veins as the intensity from their proximity was causing her heartbeat to skyrocket.

It was exactly like how she felt in the forest with Adam the first week she moved here.

They looked at each other, pulses racing, not sure of what to do next, before Cassie had to forcibly straighten her back and look away. Both girls were vaguely aware of what just happened while Cassie was taking short, quick breaths and responded.

"Yeah, no problem."


	5. Chapter 5

**Thank you guys so much for being so patient! I was dealing with some family issues and kind of lost my way for a bit, but thanks to your guys' lovely reviews (especially you Darkwill0w!) I got my head back on track. Also, I didn't mention this before, but I do not know Latin, so sorry if some of the words I've used so far are incorrect in their tense or meaning. Anyways, Happy Holidays!**

Chapter 5

"Wake up bitch, we're hanging out today."

Cassie groggily held the phone to her ear as she barely registered the words that were blaringly assaulting her ears so early in the morning. She blinked roughly and shook her head before responding.

"Excuse me? What did you just call me?" Sunlight was peeking through her windows, causing her to slowly become more and more conscious, "and why did you have to call me at this ungodly hour?"

"I called you a bitch, and pardon your lazy ass, but it's only nine o'clock, so stop being a princess and get your butt out of bed so we can hang out," said Faye in a clearly unperturbed manner. A sigh was heard on the other end.

"You know, friends normally don't call each other bitch," said the blonde.

Faye scoffed, "Yeah, well, I don't normally hang out with people, so you should feel special. Get ready, I'm coming to get you in fifteen."

And with that, the call ended, so Cassie got up out of her bed to start getting ready for her now clearly planned out day.

It had been two weeks since Cassie and Faye had performed the spell that had brought Melissa back from a comatose state, and their friendship dynamic had taken a turn for the better that the others in the circle silently came to acknowledge. Faye was still a jerk to most in school to assert her authority and dominance, but when it came to Cassie, her cutting insults and snide remarks were becoming less and less frequent. She had definitely stopped picking on her, but if anybody called her out on it, she would vehemently deny it, perhaps just in fear that people would be thinking that she's losing her bad girl rep.

For the most part, Cassie enjoyed no longer being on the receiving end of Faye's wrath, so when Faye would ask her to hang out, she would agree without a second thought, and in all honesty, the blonde actually enjoyed her company. Beneath the tough exterior, Faye was actually a pretty considerate person; she just had difficulty expressing it sometimes.

But one thing that they both silently agreed on was that one night. The night Cassie placed the innocent, seemingly meaningless kiss, on Faye's forehead. It was an unspoken rule that they never bring it up, or the moment that transpired between them, because the implications of what their skipping heartbeats, or flushed cheeks, or the gaze that lasted one moment longer than it should have, meant was a dangerous thing.

So here they stood, both in mutual friendship at the mall, doing what normal teenagers did in their area.

Faye was leaning up against the wall outside of the sliding automatic doors, looking at her nails with mild interest. Cassie saw the dark-haired girl and approached her with a deadpan smirk and a tilted head.

"Never wake me up this early on a Saturday again, please," she said.

Faye continued to look at her perfectly groomed nails as her eyebrows perked up. She shook her head, "Not my fault you need way more beauty sleep than I do."

"Your modesty amazes me sometimes," Cassie replied.

"I know, right? Humble _and_ smokin' hot. If I could, I would totally date myself. I'm incredibly awesome."

"Oh my God, do you ever hear yourself speak?"

"Only sometimes, but when I do, it's like hearing a chorus of angels in my ears."

At that, Cassie playfully slapped her on the arm, eliciting a small laugh from Faye who then linked their arms together and dragged her inside the air-conditioned mall. It was a grand building, perhaps one of the only larger features that their small town had to offer. With two floors that covered an insanely large amount of ground space, it held a variety of nearly every type of store that one could ever need or imagine.

The two girls wandered down the main strip of the indoor mall, arm in arm. Of course they felt the warming sensation from the bodily contact, but by now, they had become accustomed to it and welcomed the feeling. They thought it was strange at first, but Faye merely shrugged it off and figured that as long as it wasn't a painful feeling, then it wasn't a bad thing; Cassie couldn't think of a counterargument, and agreed with her caveman logic.

"So what exactly are we doing here? You out shopping for some new clothes or something?" asked Cassie as she watched a couple of kids playfully run past her.

Faye shrugged as her eyes scanned the windows of the stores that they were passing by, "Nothing in particular. I was just bored at home and needed to get out. I figured you'd be free to come along for the ride."

"What?" asked Cassie, "why would you assume that I didn't have plans today?"

"Do you?"

"…No."

"Exactly."

"I really hate you sometimes."

Faye burst out laughing as she lightheartedly nudged Cassie on the arm, "Whatever, you know you love me."

"Pshh, in your dreams Faye Chamberlain. Go love yourself," retorted Cassie.

"Girl, I already do," the taller witch tilted her head and winked at her.

Cassie's sweet, harmonious laughter gushed out as she gazed up at her innocently, and after a few brief moments, Faye suddenly became hyper aware that Cassie's crystal blue eyes were rather mesmerizing, and the tingling sensation resonating from her arm was attacking her ability to think clearly. Never in her life had her heart felt like it was being squeezed so tightly just from a simple look, yet here she stood, so incredibly dumbstruck and taken aback, and she had no idea how to react to the situation. Her breath caught in her throat as she panicked and unhooked her arm from the blonde, rushing over to the nearest shop as a distraction.

"Look! Uh, that top is, uhh, super cute. I want to try it on."

And with that, she disappeared into the store with a confused Cassie trailing in her wake. Walking through the isles and isles of clothing, Faye tried her best to put some distance between her and the blonde to collect her thoughts.

_What the hell Faye, what's gotten into you?_ She thought to herself, _Pull it together! So she's got really, really mind-blowing blue eyes and the most adorable laugh you've ever heard, why do you have to act all stupid about it? It's not like- _

"Earth to Faye? Are you going to try that top on or not, because right now, you're in the pants section and I really don't think the blouse is in this section, believe it or not."

"I- wait, what?" Faye blinked rapidly before she realized that Cassie was standing in front of her, waving her hands in front of her face to try and catch her attention. She shook her head and snapped out of her inner reverie before huffing to herself. She rolled her eyes and walked over to grab a random blouse before promptly going to the changing room. She was slipping the off-the-shoulder dark gray blouse over her head as she gave herself some more time to think.

_Why am I acting like this? I bet it has something to do with the stupid connection we've got going on. Anytime I'm near her, I get that damn tingling feeling. She's making me act like a stupid little girl with a crush or something._

She frowned at herself.

_Wait what?_

…

_Wow, this blouse sure is soft. _

There were two things that she was naturally gifted at; one was charming boys until she got them to do what she wanted, and the other was deflection. Right now, she sure as hell was not charming any boys. She mentally shoved away the thoughts that were creeping up on her and tucked them away in the darkest corners of her mind as she heard Cassie's voice call out quietly from the other side of the dressing room door.

"Well?"

Faye rolled her eyes, "Well what?"

"How does it look?"

Faye grunted, "It's fine, I guess."

"You going to get it? Let me see it on you!"

"What are you, my mom? I don't need your approval," she snapped.

Faye heard an exasperated sigh on the other end of the door, and immediately felt a tiny pang of guilt. She changed back into her regular clothing and opened the door to the sight of her smaller friend's slumped shoulders, looking tinier than usual. They looked at each other, and damnit her blue eyes were making Faye crumble once more.

She cast her gaze downward momentarily, thoughts racing through her head, before she gripped the blouse tight in her hand, "The top looks nice; I'm going to get it."

With that, she walked out of the changing room area and made her way to the front register. Cassie exhaled softly before walking briskly to catch up to her friend, who was already whipping out her card to pay for the merchandise. She didn't know what was going on recently with Faye, but sometimes she was nice and sometimes she would snap at her out of nowhere. It was like talking to a person with a serious case of Jekyll and Hyde, and it was hard to deal with at times, yet for some reason, she still stuck around but didn't know why.

After Faye finished up paying, the two of them silently left the store, bag in hand. She wasn't really moving, but rather was staring off at nothing. Cassie could tell that her mind was working overtime right now due to the obvious blaring silence, but instead of pressing Faye for an explanation, she just started walking towards the food court. The taller witch leisurely followed behind, chewing on her lip pensively. Cassie also understood that when it came to serious, often emotional, things, Faye would shut out the world, so the blonde kept walking until she came across a quaint coffee shop.

She went inside, the rich, dark brown interior and the wafting aromas of various coffee smells washed through her senses. Faye sat down on a small couch chair near a window and looked out as people passed by. Cassie sat across from her on a similar dark, forest green couch chair and placed the two coffees that she had bought down on the table between them. They sat in comfortable silence as Cassie sipped on her coffee and looked out the window as well to people-watch.

A few kids who looked no older than five years of age were playing near a fountain, their parents looking on endearingly. The little boy pushed down the girl and crossed his arms as the little girl started crying, so the parents came over and separated the two. The crying little girl's friend came over and helped her up, and the two girls hugged after she dried her eyes. They proceeded to skip around in circles, and it was rather adorable to watch.

"Thanks."

Cassie blinked and then turned to look at Faye, who had spoken so quietly she almost didn't hear it.

"For the coffee, I mean. Thanks."

The blonde nodded, "You're welcome."

They sipped on their coffees some more, not really saying anything else. More people passed by as the two sat in stillness.

Cassie swallowed another gulp and looked at Faye, who was obviously deep in thought.

"You want to talk about it?"

Faye shook her head.

"No."

More silence. Cassie finished up her drink and put the empty cup down on the table. Surprisingly, Faye mimicked her actions and placed her equally empty coffee cup down.

"Let's get out of here," said Faye softly.

The two of them stood up and walked out of the coffee shop with Faye leading in full stride. When she meant 'out of here,' she literally meant it, as she lead the other girl out of the entire mall complex. Faye revved up her engine and the car hummed to life as she waited for Cassie to get into the passenger seat before driving off.

The scenery was becoming familiar as they made their way to the outskirts of a dense forest area. Setting the car in park, Faye exited the car and began trekking through the trees and brush towards their safe haven of the abandoned house that they practice magic in. She was stomping over twigs and fallen branches at a blistering pace as Cassie called out from behind her.

"Wait up Faye, stop going so fast!"

Faye kept up her brisk pace without so much as throwing a simple glance backwards.

"Faye, hold up!"

By now, Faye was frowning for no apparent reason, but her thoughts were sure as heck going wild as she was wrestling with herself internally. She was so wrapped up in her thoughts that she hadn't heard Cassie pick up her pace to a jog until she felt a small hand grab her wrist causing her to feel like she had been grasped by fire. She turned around hastily and found herself looking straight into a pair of endless blue eyes for the third time that day.

Cassie's expression turned irritated, "Seriously, what is your problem right now?"

Faye rolled her eyes angrily, "I don't want to talk about it."

"Don't shut me out completely. I thought we were, you know, becoming better friends now. What's going on?"

Faye leaned in closer, "I already told you that I _don't _want to talk about it."

"Ugh, Faye, stop being such a… such a butthead about things!"

Despite the aggravation that was building up within her from Cassie's nagging, Faye couldn't help it when a small snort escaped her lips at the elementary insult. The small snort turned into a tiny giggle, to which Cassie frowned intensely.

"And what the heck is so damn funny?"

"Did you just call me a butthead?"

"Well, yeah, but you're being insanely frustrating right now, so I would like to think that that insult is completely called for."

"If you can call it an insult."

"Are you making fun of _my _ability to insult people?"

"You're about as frightening as a newborn bunny with three legs, Cassie."

Cassie threw up her arms and groaned in annoyance before crossing her arms across her chest and huffing. The corners of Faye's lips tugged up in a small grin before she reached out and held Cassie's shoulders to turn her so that they were facing each other.

"Look, I'm sorry okay? I just have a lot on my mind right now, _which_" she put emphasis on the word to cut off Cassie, who had opened her mouth to speak, "I still don't want to speak about. At least, not right now."

They continued to hold the gaze as Cassie nodded dejectedly.

"Good," said Faye before pulling the other girl into a hug. She buried her face in the shorter blonde's hair and inhaled the faint mixed scent of coffee and citrus fruits. It was an odd combination, most likely onset from the coffee shop and her shampoo, but it was curiously comforting.

They stood, hugging contently because Cassie wanted to press her on the issue, but came to the conclusion that she shouldn't. She was starting to understand a little better how the other girl worked, and when she pulled out of the hug to look Faye in the eyes, she also started to understand how Faye had a wonderful smile and a rare softness in her face, which was an expression which she assumed that most never got to witness. Faye brushed a blonde strand of hair away and tucked it behind her ear gently, causing Cassie to lightly shudder from the trail of electricity that trailed her hand's path, and then ever so slowly, it felt like the distance between them was shortening, and Faye's soft lips were coming more into focus, and then –

It was as if the world was exploding around them, but not in a good way. Both girls were thrown to the ground roughly as the earth was torn up around them like a scene you would see in a catastrophe movie. A ring of fire erupted all around and was nearly suffocating them with every searing flame that lashed out like an emblazoned lion roaring at them.

Faye scrambled over to Cassie and threw a protective arm over the smaller girl while looking around trying to scan through the flames for their attacker. Cassie was coughing up a storm from the ensuing smoke.

"What's going on?" she asked between coughing fits.

"I don't know, but stay down!"

"Faye, we need to put this fire out before the whole forest goes up in flames!"

Faye shot a concerned look to the girl beneath her, and although her face was steeled with false bravado, her eyes betrayed how terrified she really was. Cassie slipped her hand into Faye's and their fingers laced together, the comforting feeling of their connection overwhelming the fear that was rooting itself in Faye's chest.

Their magical power surged and they shouted loudly, "No air for fire!"

The effect was near immediate due to their combined strength, as the wall of blazing flames sunk back into the earth, leaving the ground a black, scorched color. Cassie coughed a few more times, but a man came into view a good twenty feet away. He had familiar dark tan skin in contrast to striking, platinum blonde hair. His red, cold eyes were staring straight at the two girls as he spoke with a deep, sultry voice.

"No matter how strong you may think you are, you cannot stop what is coming to Chance Harbor; none of your Coven can."

Faye recognized that this was the same man who had attacked Cassie and Adam.

"What are you talking about? Why are you attacking us?" she yelled at him.

His deep laugh echoed through the forest, "In due time, the ultimate demon king, Be'lial, will be released into this realm, and you will all be powerless to stop it."

Cassie's grip on Faye's hand tightened as she decided to speak up, "So what are you, his lackey?"

The dark red eyes narrowed for a split second before suddenly his movement was a blur. Faye threw herself completely over Cassie to protect her in the only way that came to mind, who then screamed out in pain as something sharp was driven through her shoulder. She looked down at the blonde, sweat forming on her brow and tears in her eyes as blood began to drip down onto Cassie's shirt. The mysterious attacker had a long, thin needle-looking spear in hand as he stood above the two.

"I am no mere lackey, so do not degrade me as such. I am the harbinger of Be'lial, and I can end you both right now, but…" he smirked coldly, "...neither of you are worth my time."

He pulled the spear out of Faye's shoulder with a sickening fleshy sound as it pulled out of her skin. Unable to hold herself up, Faye collapsed onto Cassie, her breathing haggard and eyelids heavy.

"I will let you two live out the last of your days in misery and hopeless despair, not knowing how to prevent your future and the impending disaster that is soon to befall your small town, and the world. Farewell."

With that, he disappeared from their sight, leaving both girls alone in the dead silent forest save for Faye's ragged breathing.

"Fuck… shit hurts," she sputtered out.

The gravity of the situation suddenly came crashing down onto Cassie, who then snapped out of her shock. With Faye bleeding out on top of her, she started to go into major panic mode, but she was trying to collect herself enough to form rational thoughts.

She rolled Faye over onto her back, who then hissed in pain from being moved. Cassie's eyes were looking over her body, trying to figure out what to do before she pressed both hands down onto the wound to try and staunch the bleeding. Faye grit her teeth, but couldn't help it when she let out another cry of pain. Cassie was beginning to freak out again, her eyes wild with terror.

"Shit, shit, shit, fuck, shit!" she murmured to herself while trying to think of a plan.

Faye let out a strangled laugh and whispered weakly, "Never heard… you curse like that before. You… kiss your mom… with that mouth?"

Cassie smiled through her worried expression.

"Shut up Faye."

She was met with a feeble smile in return. Cassie's brain was working in overtime, but the more she sped through her thoughts, the more things seemed to be hopeless, because she knew that she _didn't_ know any healing spells. She didn't know if saying a random phrase might work, because she was still unsure of how magic and spells were designed. The warm feeling of tears stung her eyes as her vision began to cloud up.

"Cassie!"

Her head snapped up and saw Adam and Diana come running over to them. His expression was filled with concern.

"We saw the smoke from the house and came running as soon as we could. What the hell is going on?" he asked.

"The guy who attacked us back in the steel works lot came and attacked us again. Please, you've got to help Faye!"

The two of them crouched down to look at Faye's wound and Adam cursed under his breath, "I don't know any magic on how to heal something to this degree."

Faye's eyelids fluttered open upon hearing his familiar voice, "You… couldn't magic yourself out of a paper bag."

He growled, "Can you not be such an ass, I'm trying to help you!"

Diana put a hand on his shoulder and shook her head. She motioned for Cassie to move out of the way, and then she placed her hand over Faye's bloodied shoulder before repeating over and over, "_Restituo."_

The gaping, fleshy tear began to close itself up as if being sewn together by invisible stitches. Within moments, though the shoulder was still in bad shape, the hole itself was gone and only bruised, discolored shape was in its place. Adam looked on in amazement at the new things he discovered about her every day.

"Where'd you learn that spell?"

"From my Book of Shadows. It has quite a lot of useful information, from the few things that I've translated so far," Diana said professionally, "but even though the wound is cleaned up, she'll still be in a heck of a lot of pain, so we need to get her to the house and make her comfortable."

So the three of them helped each other transport Faye to the house, and she only mildly complained throughout the whole ordeal. They set her down on the couch in the living room and then Cassie proceeded to tell them about what had happened, and everything that the mysterious attacker had said.

"Be'lial… Be'lial… that name sounds kind of familiar," said Diana, "I'll try and see if I can dig up any information on him."

"We'll hit the books, so call us if you need anything," Adam said. His expression softened, "Will you be alright here Cassie?"

She only nodded in response, and so Adam and Diana left without any further questions.

"Ugh, thank God, I thought they'd _never_ leave," sighed Faye.

Cassie looked at her with a scrunched expression, "You're awake?"

The dark-haired witch leaned up, with minor effort and a small wince, and nodded, "I feel like shit though. If Diana knew a healing spell, she could of at least given me some kind of magical anti-pain spell or something."

Hauling her body off of the couch, Faye walked over to one of the tables and leaned down. She lifted up a loose floorboard and produced a small bottle with a mysterious amber fluid sloshing about inside of it. She removed the lid and took a quick swig of the drink, cringing slightly at the taste.

Cassie's eyes went wide, "What the heck are you doing?"

Faye dragged herself to the couch and collapsed back onto the comfortable furniture. She took another sip of the drink and looked at Cassie, "Duh, what does it look like I'm doing? I need something to take the edge off of the pain. Jeez, lighten up, you're not the one that just got stabbed by some freaky whacko."

Cassie sighed and then took a seat next to her, "Seems like you're already back to perfect health."

"Nope, not even," Faye gulped down another large portion of the drink, coughing a little bit afterwards, "I just need to drink a bit more and then I'll be fine."

Cassie grabbed the bottle from her hands, "Give me that."

"Hey!" she protested.

"No," Cassie took a quick sip of the drink and made a horrid face, "yuck, how can you drink this?"

She took another sip anyways.

Faye grabbed the bottle back and downed another large portion, "Cass, my shoulder is throbbing right now, and I'm finally getting to drink in the house without Diana breathing down my back. If you're going to have some of my stash, don't complain about it and just let me have my moment."

Cassie gently pulled it out of Faye's grasp and took a long gulp of it, "Won't alcohol like… thin your blood or something? You shouldn't be drinking this stuff."

Faye laughed, "Whatever, you only live once. Besides, I don't have to worry about my war wound opening up since it was healed closed with magic, duh."

Both of their faces were getting flush as they continued to take turns drinking from the bottle until it was completely empty. It wasn't exactly a large bottle, but granted it was being split between the two relatively average-sized girls, it was enough to make them both beyond buzzed. After another half an hour of bantering back and forth, Cassie got up to turn the lights off and found Faye stretched out on the couch.

"Get up, I won't fit. Your huge, elephantastic ass is taking up the whole space."

Faye stuck her tongue out, "Bite me, blondie. Get your own couch."

Cassie shuffled over and pushed the larger girl out of the way just enough so that she could lie down next to her on the couch. Faye burst out into a fit of giggles, "Seriously? You're going to try and, and, and steal my couch? Faye Chamberlain does not share anything."

"Oh shut up and go to sleep Faye."

She pressed into Faye's body, her back flush against her chest. Faye draped her arm around Cassie's waist and sighed into the other girl's hair comfortably. Her head was definitely spinning out of control, and she was pretty sure she was not going to remember the night, but the good thing was that she also would not remember the dull aching pain that was throbbing in her shoulder either.

They were silent for a while, but then out of the darkness, Cassie spoke almost inaudibly, "Why'd you do it?"

Faye's eyes blinked half open as she mumbled, "Hm?"

"Why'd you protect me?"

Faye snorted, "That's a stupid question."

Cassie turned around to face Faye, her breath tickling her face with each exhale. Her cheeks were still noticeably pink, even with the pale moonlight flooding her features.

"Why?"

Faye's pulse was starting to beat rapidly, and she was sure that the hammering of her heart could be heard from a mile away. That suffocating feeling was overwhelming her again, and Cassie's blue eyes were once again searching her for an answer that she didn't want to give.

"I- I don't know. Just go back to –"

Her words were abruptly cut off by Cassie, and suddenly her head was spinning, but this time not from the alcohol. She's seen those lips many times, and while she had only imagined that they would be soft, actually having them pressed against hers felt like she was tasting heaven. The jolt that it sent shock waving through her entire system was like being engulfed by a downpour of rain that she couldn't escape, but it felt damn _good._

It was a sweet, chaste kiss, and she found herself wanting it to never end, but then it was over almost as quickly as it had happened.

Cassie rolled back over with her back pressing firmly into Faye, whose thoughts were once again processing a mile a minute.


	6. Chapter 6

**First off, I'd like to say Happy New Year! Hopefully the New Year treats you all well, and I hope you're all as excited for the upcoming episode as I am! I'm also a little scared to see if Faye is the other Balcoin kid, so uh, in the event that that does come to pass, I am going to continue to ignore that. _**

Chapter 6

Faye woke up from her dream, the light filtering into the room in thin streams, casting an illuminated, crooked striping pattern on the floor. She blinked a bit, her mind still hazy from the previous night, and she was slowly being pulled into a more lucid state. There was a warm body pressed up against her, their even breathing a sign that they were still resting, and she realized that her arm was loosely draped around their waist. It was then that Faye realized just _who's_ waist it was, and then all of a sudden, all the memories from last night's events slammed into her like a screaming locomotive, and all hell broke loose in her mind. Her eyes widened up, and her breathing was becoming shallow as she began to panic. There was the cursed empty bottle of alcohol laughing at her as it rested innocently on the ground in mocking silence.

Not wanting to wake up Cassie, Faye slowly eased her way up and over, carefully swinging her body over the sleeping blonde and onto the ground beside the couch. She sat on the floor, rubbing her temples and nursing a minor headache from the momentary panic and movement, not to mention body aches near her shoulder that was previously injured.

_This is all a dream. A mistake. I know it is. None of that was supposed to happen last night,_ thought Faye, _It's all because of the damn feeling that I get when I'm around her. I'm confusing the magic with emotions, or some crap like that, I just know it. _

She stares at the empty bottle and her eyes narrow in hostility, _Stupid bottle. It's all your fucking fault. I'm blaming this shit on you. Granted, I've gotten much more hammered on other occasions, but I'm pretty sure you're the reason behind this messed up situation._

"Faye?"

The soft voice snapped her out of her internal ranting and she turned to look at Cassie who had just spoken out to her. Keeping her distance, she put on her best façade that she could and merely smiled back in response.

"What's up sleeping beauty?" Faye instantly internally kicked herself at the worst nickname she could have picked, in light of the current situation. She didn't know whether or not Cassie remembered what happened last night, but she decided to feel out the situation first. Cassie winced and rubbed her head.

"I feel like my head is being squeezed together; it's the worst headache I've had in ages!" she groaned.

Faye laughed, "Girl, you have yourself one hangover from hell if you ask me. You uh… quite outdid yourself on the drinking last night. I didn't know you had it in you since you're always such a good two shoes and stuff, but you really surprised me."

"I had no idea either. I don't really ever drink, but I know I'm actually the worst lightweight you will ever see," Cassie paused and grimaced, another wave of pain washing over her before she continued more hesitantly than before, "and how exactly did you manage to get me to drink with you? What exactly happened last night?"

Relief filled her system as Faye realized that she was most likely out of the clear, "So you don't remember anything from last night?"

Cassie was silent for a good long moment before daintily shaking her head no.

Faye just laughed, "Well, long story short, I got hurt, wanted to drink, and you drank with me. We fell asleep like a couple of boring people, and now we're here."

The blonde sat up and rubbed her head again, obviously in a lot more pain than Faye was at the moment. Knowing how much hangovers can hurt, Faye rolled her eyes and got up to go to the kitchen. She grabbed a clean glass and filled it with some drinking water before returning to Cassie and kneeling down in front of her. She looked up at the blonde and gave her the glass before smirking.

"Here, you'll need to hydrate yourself. I'll go get you some Tylen-"

Faye was in mid-sentence, about to get up before Cassie grabbed her wrist. She looked at Faye, her bright blue eyes searching for answers, "So nothing really happened last night? Nothing at all?"

Faye's face flinched, but she maintained her composure, a few questions racing through her mind. Should she tell the truth? What would Cassie think? What would they even talk about?

_Not like it really matters though, it's not like I like her or anything,_ Faye mused to herself.

She chuckled as normally as she could, doing her best to keep the nervousness out of her voice.

"Really, nothing happened. Why?"

Cassie frowned, but not from the headache this time. Her grip slowly loosened, letting Faye turn around and search for some Tylenol. Good thing, because Faye felt like she could no longer keep her face as neutral as possible. She was battling some weird conflict of emotions in her mind, but her heart kept confusing some things and she didn't know why or for what reason. She heard the blonde sigh from behind her.

"I… I know it sounds crazy, and I know you would absolutely laugh at me until the end of the universe if I told you, but I swear I had this really weird… dream or something, last night. I mean, it felt so real, and like, was strange, but…" Cassie stuttered, her face beat red, "…but it wasn't necessarily bad, and… you know what, uh, never mind. It was probably nothing."

Faye paused at the drawers. She saw the Tylenol and grabbed the pill container, gripping it tightly in her hand. Her jaw clenched down just as firmly as she wrestled with telling Cassie the truth, but just as she turned around, Adam, Diana, and Melissa came walking up the stairs and into the main living room area. Melissa's eyebrow quirked up at seeing the two of them together, but she didn't say a thing. Faye looked at Cassie, the words dying on her tongue as she decided to not say a thing.

Diana walked over to the empty alcohol bottle and picked it up. She looked at Cassie, and then to Faye, disapproval obvious in her expression, "What the hell is this?"

"Jeez, chill out Miss Buzzkill, we were only enjoying ourselves a little; something that you don't seem to do often enough," retorted Faye.

Diana threw her hands up before setting the bottle on a nearby table, "I have told you time and time and again that it can be dangerous to perform magic while under the influence!"

Faye chuckled suggestively, "Oh we were definitely performing magic last night, right Cassie?"

"What?" started Adam heatedly.

Cassie blushed profusely and Faye looked at both Diana and Adam with a deadpan expression before speaking again.

"Kidding."

Melissa looked at her with both eyebrow's were arched up in continued curiosity.

Faye laughed, "Jeez, you guys seriously cannot take a joke."

Adam scowled and was about to give Faye a piece of his mind, but instead, another deep voice spoke up from the staircase; a very familiar voice that belonged to a particular dirty blonde boy.

"I thought it was pretty funny."

Faye looked to where she heard the voice and her chest seemed to clench in place. It was someone who she hated, yet loved at the same time, and thought he was gone for good after he was discovered as a witch hunter. His dark boots creaked on the floorboards as he took a step into view with his signature smile and boyish charm.

"Hey Faye, long time no see," said Jake.

Her voice eluded her as she suddenly had a blank slate for a mind, as nothing seemed to be processing correctly. She walked over to an equally as stunned Cassie and tossed the bottle of Tylenol into her lap. She looked up into Faye's eyes, and it seemed that they had a silent exchange, from the looks of the glossy glaze in her expression. Melissa walked over to her best friend and tentatively held her hand for reassurance as she spoke to her.

"Jake came back to town and he… wanted to help us – "

"Bullshit!" Faye interjected loudly. Everyone froze on the spot, "He's just come back to screw us over, _again_, or did you guys all seem to forget?"

She shook free Melissa's hand and began striding over towards Jake with a dangerous look in her eye, "I haven't forgotten the shit that you put us through, what you put _Cassie_ through. You failed to even acknowledge that you and I had a relationship and then proceed to string Cassie along only to try and kill her before skipping town? And now you have the fucking nerve to come strolling back in and want us to just, what, forgive you so we can all be one little happy coven together?"

Jake narrowed his eyes and pressed his pointer finger into her chest, "I know I messed up, but I'm here to fix everything. I could care less if you ever trust me again, but I have some information on the disaster that is approaching Chance Harbor and you'll sure as hell need me if you want to defeat it."

His gaze softened slightly as he backed off, "I am sorry, you know." Faye was still fuming, her chest heaving up and down from her shortened breath. He grinned ever so slightly in spite of everything.

"And since when did you and Cassie become such good friends?"

"You know what? It's none of your goddamn business!" Faye snarled before retreating to the couch to sit down next to Cassie, who was rather stunned, and touched, at how passionate the outburst was, while everybody else was incredibly surprised at Faye's reaction, but decided not to say anything lest they incur her wrath further. It seemed to come out of nowhere, but nobody really knew what was going on in the girl's head these days since she had already been rather mysterious and kept to herself in the beginning, but hanging with Cassie the past few weeks caused her to become even more unpredictable. The whole group kind of shared a few concerned glances with one another, an awkward silence lingering in the air, until Diana cleared her throat and proceeded to talk.

"Well, now that everyone is… reacquainted, I would like to let you all know the results of my research," she pulled out a few papers that were stuffed into her book of shadows that she had brought along and started to read off some information, "This Be'lial guy is apparently one of the Crown Princes of Hell and is one heck of a demon if there ever was one. I found in my book of shadows that it was foretold that he would once again walk the Earth and wreak havoc, you know, the standard destruction of the planet story, and that we would all be doomed. The only way to bring him here though, is via a portal, and the opportunity to open said portal only comes by every once few hundred years. As it just so happens, one of those cycles happens to fall upon the full moon coming up in the next week or so."

Melissa's features scrunched up, deep in thought, "You said he can only be released here via portal, so obviously someone is trying to open that up. My guess would be that creep who keeps attacking us, but how do we know if, or when, he's going to fully open up that portal?"

Diana nodded, "Yes, the stories say that Be'lial can't open the portal himself, and needs a helper to unlock it for him using some kind of ritual, but I don't have any other information regarding that. Typically the signs to know when the portal is getting bigger are when people give in to their most carnal, human urges, and seem to lose a good portion of their inhibition."

Faye felt her face redden from that last bit of information, _Well shit,_ she thought,_ That's probably why Cassie and I kissed last night. Alcohol, in addition to stupid demon pheromones bouncing around._

She turned to look at Cassie and noticed that the blonde had actually blushed a deep, noticeable crimson. She tilted her head and made eye contact with Faye, and in that moment, after a silent exchange, her blue eyes widened ever so slightly and her head snapped in the other direction. Faye smirked and rolled her eyes, eventually catching another odd glance in her direction from Melissa. She silently shrugged her shoulders and mouthed 'what?' Melissa shook her head and asked another question instead.

"So, how do we stop this guy? Just shove him back into his own portal?"

It was Jake's turn to shake his head, "No, you can't just push him back into his own dimension, it doesn't work that way. Besides, it would take an extremely powerful amount of magic and spells to banish him back through the portal, so our best bet is to make sure that the portal never fully opens. We essentially just have to make sure that either we kill the lackey, or the lackey is stalled for long enough that he loses the timeframe to open the portal."

Diana nodded, "Alright, well that sounds like a plan. Is there any way to pinpoint where he will be trying to open up the portal?"

Jake rubbed his chin pensively before speaking, "Well, typically it would be best to open the portal in a place that's farther away from being discovered, so I would actually guess that would be somewhere in this forest, or in the mountains, since he needs a larger location but still with some visual cover."

Getting up off the couch and walking up to Jake, Faye narrowed her eyes, her voice a deep rumble, "And just how do you know so much about this demon, hm?"

Not backing down from the challenge, Jake leered smugly, "None of your goddamn business."

They stared each other down, the tension thick in the air until Diana walked up to the two and proceeded to separate them, "Alright, alright you two. We need all of the coven here to stop this demon, and we don't stand a chance if you guys kill each other before anything even happens."

Jake grunted and walked waved his arm, already on his way down the stairs, "Whatever, obviously I'm not wanted here right now, so I'll go digging around to see if I can find some more information on the demon. I'm out of here."

And with that, he started down the stairs, until Cassie called out from behind him, "Hey wait up!" she got up off the couch and jogged over to his side. She cast an odd, hesitant look of trepidation at Faye before continuing on next to Jake, "I'll go with you." A small smile tugged on his lips, and as the two disappeared down the staircase, he shot a smug look at Faye, who promptly scowled deeply in response.

Adam rolled his eyes and huffed tiredly, "I seriously hate that guy."

"That makes two of us," remarked Faye.

Not ever thinking he would ever agree with Faye on anything, Adam actually chuckled a bit before linking his hand into Diana's, "C'mon, let's go back to town and grab some food. I promised my dad I would help him clear out some old trunks and other junk items in the attic a little later today, so I want to make sure I have a full stomach before tackling it all."

"Sure," Diana smiled before looking to Melissa and Faye, "We'll see you guys later. I'll keep you updated if I find anything else."

They retreated downstairs as well to escape the awkwardness that had lingered in the air leaving Faye and Melissa alone. The tension was thick as Melissa took a tentative step towards her best friend, and when the taller witch did not budge, Melissa spoke out softly.

"You know… I get that you don't like Jake anymore, and he has screwed us over in the past, but he seems to be pretty genuine now yet you aren't even giving him a chance. What's up with you Faye?"

The taller girl looked downcast as her eyebrows scrunched together, her lips pursed. She walked back to the couch and sat down, propping her elbows on her knees and resting her face on her hands. Sighing heavily, she continued to gaze at the creaky floor, not knowing why she was having such weird feelings and urges.

"I honestly don't know, Melissa."

Melissa walked over and joined her friend on the couch and threw a supportive arm around Faye's back, giving her a gentle hug, "Well, you also don't have to forgive the bastard either, but at least get along with him for now. And I couldn't help but notice… is there something going on between you and Cassie?"

Faye jerked sideways and shot her a frantic expression, stammering ineptly, "I – uh, I… what? What do you mean? No!"

Melissa held up her hands and backed off, "Okay wow, defensive much? I mean, it looked like you guys had like, an argument or something and I was just wondering. And with Jake back in town, and I know how much you both had kind of… you know, had a thing for him, I didn't know if you guys were being all angry at each other. It was just weird because you two have become so close but you two were acting so weird today. Well actually…" she tapped her chin thoughtfully, "…only you were acting super odd. So spill; what's going on?"

Faye almost laughed at the heavyset irony, as Melissa couldn't be any more wrong. Shaking her head, a few frustrated tears slipped out of her eyes, and it was then that Melissa knew something was up, since her friend often didn't cry. So instead of pushing the matter, she kept holding her in the embrace, knowing that if Faye wanted to talk about it, it would eventually come out. A long moment passed, the peaceful silence, save a few sniffles here and there, was quite welcoming in contrast to the war going on in her head, and after deliberating on what to do, Faye muttered almost inaudibly.

"We kissed…"

Melissa blinked, "You, what? You're mumbling; I didn't catch that."

"We – we, uh…"

"What?"

"WE KISSED, ALRIGHT?" Faye shouted, her voice cracking mid-sentence.

"WAIT, YOU DID WHAT?"

"WE KISSED!"

"OH MY GOD YOU DID NOT!"

"JUST! – Just shut up, okay?" Faye pleaded, "I don't want to blow this shit out of proportion or anything, okay? We drank a little bit last night, and then –"

"Wait hold up," Melissa's head was spinning from the confession, "Cassie drank? With you?"

"Excuse me? What is that supposed to mean? I'm an awesome person to drink with, in case you don't remember!" Faye exclaimed defensively.

"Well, okay so you guys kissed, but it's not like it meant anything right? People do that all the time when they're drunk, unless you actually liked it," Melissa leaned in close, her eyebrow arched up quizzically and she whispered, "Did you?"

Faye's eyes widened, "What? Ugh, of course not!"

"Then why are you making such a big deal out of it?"

Faye cast her gaze downward again and was silent for a few moments before replying, "Okay well maybe I did like it a little."

"Faye Chamberlain, will you make up your damn mind?"

"I don't know, okay?" Faye shouted, her face flush from embarrassment, "I don't know how I feel! This shit is just coming from out of nowhere and whenever it comes to Cassie, my mind just doesn't work right and it's fucking frustrating!"

Tears began to spill down her cheeks as uncontrollable sobs racked her body. Melissa shut up for a few moments, realizing that this was a lot for her friend to think about. Heck, it was a lot for _her_ to think about, in regards to how to be there as a friend, because right now, she had no idea how to help Faye in this situation. So instead, she let the other girl cry it out. Scooting back closer to Faye, Melissa pulled her into a tight hug again and decided that even though Faye wasn't always the best friend when it came to Nick, she also knew that Faye could be more emotionally fragile and needed someone right now.

"Talk to me."

And so after the tears ebbed and her cheeks were moist, Faye began to spill her thoughts.

* * *

><p>"Dad, where did you want these to go?"<p>

"Next to the dresser."

Adam hoisted a large, dusty cardboard box upstairs and into the darker, musky attic space. There was a large, rectangular window that let in a generous amount of light, so he spotted the deep oak dresser with some separate shelving on top immediately and set down the box next to it. The dresser with the shelving unit had been passed down from generation to generation in his family, and it last rested in his mom's room, so it held a special place in his heart. Wiping his brow of the light beads of sweat, Adam put his arms on his hips and looked around. He had been moving old box after box upstairs into this attic, but never really knew what exactly was being stored up here. A heavy weight rested on his shoulder as his dad mused to himself.

"You know, Amelia used to like to come up here to look at the stars when it was night time," said his dad, Ethan.

Adam rolled his eyes and shrugged off the hand that was resting on his shoulder, "Whatever. Don't tell me you came up here just to reminisce, because you've been sitting on that couch downstairs drinking all day and being a slave driver with these containers and junk. I said I would help you, not do it all for you."

Ethan laughed, a glassy look in his eyes as he looked out the window, "We were supposed to be together, you know."

Adam sighed, "I never forget."

And with that, his dad stumbled back down the stairs, still talking to himself with each step of the way. Adam went back to stacking some of the boxes onto each other and wiped off a layer of dust. The box was unlabeled, but curiosity got the better of him and so he flipped open the lid and looked at the contents within. This particular box held some old clothing, a few knick-knacks here and there, as well as some old photographs. One of the photos was of his mom when she was younger, apparently in her college years, and so he pocketed the photo with a fond smile on his face. Going back down stairs, he picked up the last container, which was particularly heavy since it was a plastic box with stacks of papers and article clippings stuff inside of it. Carefully making his way back up to the attic, he struggled his way over to the dresser and dropped the container on the ground with a deafening thud.

The cardboard boxes rumbled a bit, and then the dresser shook. He frowned confusedly, and realized that it was beginning to teeter over, and before he knew it, the furniture came toppling down. The container that he had dropped to the floor had caused the dresser's top portion of shelves to come detached and fall down. It broke in a few places and splintered everywhere.

"Shit!" Adam cursed to himself.

He started to pick up some of the larger, sharper pieces of the dresser and tossed them aside into a pile. After gathering the larger shards, he started to collect the smaller pieces, when he noticed a small black book wedged inside of a hollowed out portion of one of the fractured wood pieces. His eyes widened and he slowly reached for the book, shaking with anticipation, as he was pretty sure he knew what it was. Pulling the black object out, he held the leather-bound item and ran his hand over the cover, feeling the texture beneath his fingers. He smiled broadly; Adam finally found his family's Book of Shadows. The book that his father said he lost long ago in a drunken state, the book he _never_ thought he'd find, and yet here it was, laid out perfectly for him.

He unwrapped the leather string that had the book bound shut, and after opening the pages, the book had rather darker looking illustrations in it. It certainly had a more sinister feel than Diana's book, but he continued to flip through the pages. As the spells and photos piqued his interest, he finally flipped to the end, but the last few pages caught his eye, and his smile gradually began to fade. Printed in neat, faded handwriting, he read these words:

_Book of the exalted Chamberlain family_


	7. Chapter 7

**I am so sorry for the long wait. I had the chapter started, then I just got overwhelmed with a lot of things and never got around to finishing it. A special thanks to those who wrote reviews too! I honestly have not seen any episodes since the last chapter was released, so this will basically now be unrelated to the show at this point, and I also just read that the show was cancelled sooo _;**

Chapter 7

It was odd how such tiny, unassuming little words could cause such a tumultuous feeling of confusion in him. Adam stared at the name that was written as plain as day in the page and couldn't help but feel rage pent up inside of him. He slammed the book shut and gripped it tightly as he stormed out of the attic room, racing down the stairs taking two at a time.

"Dad!" He shouted, as he made his way over to the living room, "What the hell is this?"

He found his father lying down on the couch, an open bottle on the coffee table nearby, as his dad was nearly half asleep. Adam's shouting woke him a little bit more to consciousness, though he still had lidded, bloodshot eyes as he made a half grin.

"What's with all the shouting Adam? Did you break something?"

Adam stomped to where his dad was laying down and waved the book angrily at the drunken man, "Do you know what this is?"

Ethan's eyes sobered up as he saw what his son was holding in front of him, "Where did you get that?"

"I found it upstairs when I was cleaning and moving the boxes around and yes, I did break one of the furniture pieces, but I found this inside of it when it shattered."

Bloodshot eyes stared at the book, and his expression changed softly. Ethan didn't know if his son read any of what was inside or if his son even knew what it meant, but he tried to play it off anyways, "It is our family book, Adam. It has the history and records of a lot of things that our family accomplished and studied."

Adam scoffed, "Oh really? It's_ our_ family book?"

Ethan nodded, "Yes, that is the book that I read when I was younger that I always rave about. It's the one that told me that our family was destined to be with the Blakes; it told me that Amelia and I were supposed to be together. But… my dad took it away from me before I could finish reading and hid it away, never to be found again. Well, until now that is."

Adam narrowed his eyes. He couldn't believe what he was hearing. Was his dad completely that ignorant to not know that it wasn't their book? Or was he truly convinced that that belonged to them?

"Screw this."

Adam grit his teeth as he just blew off his dad completely. Gripping the book in his hand, he walked away despite his dad calling for him to come back. It didn't make any sense to him as to why they would have the wrong book for so long and how they even got into possession of it. It made sense now why Faye couldn't find her family book, no matter how hard she tried, because it was tucked securely away in his attic where nobody could find it. Whipping out his cell phone, he called Diana and asked her to meet him at the abandoned house.

He got there first and sat in the living room, reading parts of the book on his own. The pages were old and tattered, and contained some useful looking spells that he hadn't seen when he flipped through it earlier. There were notes jotted down on the margins, scribbles detailing little nuances in the spells with tricks on how to perform it better here and there.

Adam also read some tidbits here and there mentioning things about the Blakes, but some of it was in a different language that he couldn't decipher.

"Adam, I got here as soon as I could," Diana was making her way up the stairs as she approached him, slightly out of breath, "what was so urgent that you needed me to get here for? I was about to get a manicure."

He looked at her and under normal circumstances, he would have laughed at how girly Diana could be sometimes, but he still wasn't feeling right after discovering the book. She immediately noticed the small, black book that was in his hands and nearly choked. Gasping out loud, her eyes went wide and her mouth hung open, "Is that… is… is that your family book!"

"No…" he handed the book off to her and grunted, "…it belongs to the Chamberlains."

Diana immediately looked incredibly confused and flabbergasted, "I'm sorry, what did you just say? Why in the world would you have Faye's family book?"

Adam threw his hands up defeated, "Hell if I know. I tried asking my dad, and he just said he read part of it before his dad took it and hid it away from him. Apparently we've had the Chamberlain family book and never knew it. It's a bunch of bullshit, and because of that damned book, my dad thought he was destined to be with Amelia, but now I know that it was just a fucking lie!"

He was fuming as he clenched his jaw shut, "And to top that all off, my dad had told me that I was destined to be with Cassie because of it, and was trying to get in my head saying that you and I would break up, all because of a stupid book's prophecy!" His knuckles went white as he balled his hands into fists."

"Written in the stars my ass," he growled.

Diana flipped through the book, taking in all of what Adam was saying while also reading some of the pages along the way. She could see some of the parts that Adam was referring to, about how the book referenced that they were meant to be together, and how the two houses would be joined as one. She couldn't believe what she was reading, but even more so couldn't believe that Adam's dad had believed the book and hadn't even read to the end to find out that it didn't belong to the Conants.

"Should we tell Faye about this?" Adam asked quietly. He knew how much Faye loved magic, and how envious she was of Cassie that she had a family book.

"I don't know," Diana sighed, "I don't want Faye going off the deep end. If she gets a hold of the book, she's going to read the whole thing and want to perform every spell. We still don't know what kind of dark magic might be in that book."

"Well maybe the book has information on this Demon King guy. We can hold onto the book a little while longer and see if we can discover anything," said Adam.

Diana nodded, "Alright, sounds like a plan."

* * *

><p>"So Jake… what are we doing here in your room again?"<p>

Cassie had expected to go to a library of some sort, or any other place that was dusty and generally exploding with knowledge. Instead, Jake had just led her back to his place. If he was trying to get her to like him again, this was not off to a good start.

Jake rummaged through some of his bookshelves and was throwing a few dusty tomes onto his mattress, causing a dust cloud with each book tossed. He was silent as he chucked each book, for the most part ignoring Cassie's question either intentionally, or just because he was preoccupied with searching for the right books. Cassie stood there, her patience starting to dwindle as she crossed her arms and waited for him to stop his searching rampage. After a few more dusty books were tossed onto the mattress, Jake proceeded to open up a chest and throw more old papers and rustic manuscripts onto the mattress. After the last of the volumes were thrown on the bed, he dusted off his hands and smiled to her.

"_That's_ what we're doing here," he walked over and picked up a smaller, maroon book with dirty gold embellishing, "my family kept a lot of documents and so I figured we'd be able to find something here that can help us."

She clapped her hands together and gave a weak smile, "Well, I guess we better hit the books then."

Jake pushed aside some of the books to make room for them to sit, but as he sat down on the bed in the cleared area, Cassie instead picked up a rolled scroll and sat on the foot of the bed. She unraveled the scroll and began reading, though it didn't seem to contain any useful information, or at least any kind of useful spells. An awkward silence hung in the air as the only sound that could be heard would be the shuffling of papers and the occasional turning of a page.

"I don't bite, you know," came Jake's voice softly from where he was sitting.

Cassie's body stiffened as he spoke. She didn't know what his true aim was, whether he had actually come back to truly help them, or if he was just trying to lure them all back in to trusting him again. She turned her head to face him and looked into his eyes. Though in the past, those crystal clear eyes would have made her heart melt, she now did not feel just quite the same.

"Cassie… I want to make things better between us again," he started, his voice quiet as he loosely gripped the book he was holding, "and, I know that I messed up before, but if you'd give me a second chance, I can make things right."

She remained still as he continued to speak, though he had gotten up from where he was sitting and started to walk around the bed. He knelt in front of her and held her chin in his hands, prompting her to look at him. His features seemed genuine and sincere, but then again, they had looked like that before and look where that got them.

"Please Cassie," his eyes were earnest as his face hovered closer, "Let me fix it."

For some reason, his eyes transfixed her on the spot, and she couldn't move an inch. No, it wasn't a spell, but it may as well been. His eyes were so intense, and with them inching closer, she didn't react until his lips pressed against hers. Jake leaned into the kiss and for a split second, Cassie couldn't even process what was going on, but as she felt the warmth of his close body, her senses flashed and she pulled back while pushing him away gently. She couldn't explain why, but it didn't feel right.

Her eyes glossed over as tears threatened to spill out. She blinked rapidly and shook her head, her voice shaky and uncertain.

"Jake, I- I can't. I just…"

She got up, letting the scroll drop to the floor. Making her way to the door, she picked up her belongings that she had set down earlier and flashed an apologetic look to him with her watery eyes.

"I'll… see you later," she said before exiting his room.

He stood there dejectedly as the door swung closed, leaving him alone with nothing but the books and silence.

Cassie whipped out her cell phone and dialed the first person that came to mind.

* * *

><p>"Shit, shit, shit, fuck shit, that was her."<p>

Faye was pacing back and forth in her room, her eyes still slightly puffy and red from attempting to explain how she was feeling to Melissa. Her friend had sat, quiet and attentive. She listened to what Faye had to say and would occasionally nod her head here and there, and for the most part, she let her just run her course, not wanting to really interject too much commentary here and there.

Together, they had come to the confusing conclusion that maybe Faye felt something, and maybe she didn't, she just couldn't tell due to confusing the magic with emotions. So all in all, they were back to square one.

"She's on her way over here and she sounded kind of distressed. What the hell am I supposed to do?"

Melissa rolled her eyes, "Well for one, stop pacing around, you're giving me a migraine."

Faye stopped in place and stared at her friend, her expression straight-faced. Melissa gave her a small smile in return, "And make sure to comfort her when she gets here."

"Comfort?" The taller witch immediately threw her hands up and began pacing again, frantically waving her arms about in a frenzy, "I'm Faye Fucking Chamberlain, I don't _do_ comfort."

Melissa rolled her eyes once again and smiled, "Well, you've better learn to figure it out. Anyways, I'm out. I'll let you guys chat alone."

"What? You're leaving me?" Faye shrieked as her eyes widened like a deer caught in headlights.

"No shit Sherlock," Melissa snorted, "I'm sure as heck not going to be cockblocking up in this house. Or well, maybe not cockblock, but you know what I mean."

"Fine, some friend you are."

Melissa just scoffed and smiled, "Whatever, you'll thank me later."

She made her way out of the room and left Faye to be lost in her own thoughts. Faye couldn't understand what was going on. Sure, Diana had mentioned that perhaps the rise of this Demon King was causing people to have more primal urges, but was this in direct correlation to the odd thoughts that were swelling in her head?

Faye shook her head furiously before plopping down on her bed, sprawling out on her back lazily. Thinking made her head hurt, that's why she left that stuff up to Diana and Adam. Things that made her think too hard, she'd often just push aside and come back to it another day, or if things turned out for the better, the problems would just never come back at all. This stuff with Cassie however, no matter how hard she tried to push it away, always seemed to find a way to come creeping back up to bite her in the ass.

Not too long after, though it felt like an eternity, there was a knock on her bedroom door causing Faye to jump nervously. She cursed inwardly, as she didn't even understand why she was acting so nervously all of a sudden. It wasn't like their friendship changed or anything, but for some reason Faye just couldn't get Cassie out of her system. Being aware of just how much the blonde had a hold on her heart changed everything though. It was times like these that Faye wished she were left in the dark.

"Hello…? Faye?" Cassie's faint voice was heard through the door.

"D-door's open," Faye stuttered. She instantly kicked herself mentally, as she was already not off to a good start.

Cassie opened the door slowly and peeked her head in, "Mind if I come in?"

Faye rolled her eyes at her, "You're already in my house."

The blonde smiled sheepishly before coming inside and closing the door behind her. The door clicked shut and Cassie turned to Faye. She looked a bit uncomfortable, and her red eyes tipped Faye off to the fact that she had been crying.

"I'm sorry for calling you so out of the blue like this, but I had to talk to someone," said Cassie.

Faye's features softened as she silently scooted on her bed and patted the area next to her, motioning for the blonde to sit down. Cassie put her things down on the dresser nearby and then took a seat next to Faye on the bed. Their arms brushed up close and it sent shivers down their spines, but they sat in silence for a few more moments as Cassie tried to form words. As the minutes ticked by, Faye started to feel as though she should say something, but her heart was beating rapidly and she wasn't thinking like she normally did.

"I was with Jake," Cassie said suddenly and rather softly.

Her words jolted Faye from her inner reverie and the darker haired witch suddenly began to worry. Jake was always a wildcard and could never be tamed. He acted rather unpredictably and that was partly what always excited and drew Faye in, but whenever she got mixed up with him, it often ended badly. Letting her go at her own pace, Faye waited until the blonde continued on.

"I was with Jake and we were studying some books in his room-"

"You werewhere?" Faye exclaimed, cutting off the blonde, "You actually let him take you to his room? He's just a-"

"I know, I know!" Cassie said, holding her hands up to make Faye stop. Her eyes were sparkling once more as tears threatened to fall down. She bit her lip and her eyebrows furrowed up, "We were in his room and granted, he did actually have a lot of different books and scrolls which would possibly help us out, but we got to talking… and he was actually being kind of sweet. But, but then he kissed me and –"

"HE _WHAT_!" Faye's eyes bulged and she scowled deeply, taking the news rather harshly. She grabbed Cassie's arm, "He didn't try anything else, did he?"

Shaking her head, Cassie smiled, a bit bemused by her reaction, "No, no, he didn't. I just left right after it happened and called you. I didn't really know what to do, to be honest."

Faye let out a small sigh of relief. Before she could stop herself, she pulled Cassie into a tight hug and found her face buried in endless golden locks. Inhaling the scent of what she assumed was either her shampoo or lotion, Faye closed her eyes and held her close.

"I'm glad you're safe."

Cassie's lips turned up into a faint smile and a tear escaped her eye, "I'm glad you're here for me."

They continued to hug in silence before Faye pulled back slightly and looked hesitantly into Cassie's eyes. Their faces were barely a few inches from each other, and for both of them, it felt as though their hearts were going to burst out of their chests at the rate they were hammering away. Faye's eyelids fluttered as she moved in closer, as though they were drawn to each other through some unseen force, and Cassie parted her lips in anticipation. It seemingly felt so natural and easy, and the taller witch closed in. Only a few more inches, that's all it would take.

"Girls, how are you doing in there?"

A knock on the door and Dawn's muffled voice through the door startled both girls apart, their cheeks flush, their heartbeats skyrocketing through the roof. They separated to a normal distance apart but refused to make eye contact.

"We're fine mom!" Faye shouted, slightly annoyed and a bit flustered.

"Well okay, but if Cassie wants to stay the night, she's more than welcome to," Mrs. Chamberalin responded back.

"Ughh, okay whatever, thanks," responded Faye, now clearly aggravated.

After they heard her mom's footsteps lead away, both girls were left in awkward silence on the bed. They were both well aware of what had almost happened, and they didn't know what to say. Faye mustered up enough courage and snuck a peak at Cassie, who in turn tilted her head to face her as well. They held eye contact for a few quick moments before Cassie blinked rapidly and got up off the bed.

"Thanks, Faye… for uh… being there for me," Cassie whispered nervously, "I do really appreciate it."

The brown-haired witch nodded and cast her gaze downward and sighed, "Yeah, anytime."

"I think I'll be going home now though, or else my grandma will worry about me," Cassie said as she made her way to the door.

She placed her hand on the knob and opened the door, but she paused in place. Cassie wasn't budging, and Faye was wondering why she hadn't left already. It was as if the blonde was thinking deeply, as the room was dead quiet. After a few more moments, Cassie began to stutter,

"I…I do remember what happened that night."

Faye's brows furrowed. What was she talking about? What night? Cassie continued on.

"I remember it all… but… but I don't want to talk about it," the blonde cast a brief glance at Faye, her blue eyes were now tearing up and were shimmering with each blink, "at least not right now."

And with that, she left the room. Faye didn't even get a chance to respond, but she had no idea what she was talking about. What night was she talking about?

And then it hit her; it had to have been the night they drank.

_Shit_.


	8. Chapter 8

**Sorry, so I know this is like, out of nowhere but I had this chapter half-written and figured I should hunker down and FINISH IT. Thanks to whomever decides to find out how it ends!**

Chapter 8

A few days had gone by since Cassie had left Faye alone in her room, mere moments away from a kiss, but ended in an uncomfortable air of uncertainty. Everything seemed to be off between everyone in the group. Jake was more or less ignoring Cassie, Diana and Adam were avoiding Faye, and Faye and Cassie seemed to be stuck in an apprehensive space. Neither girls were speaking to each other directly, but still glanced at each other every now and then causing the group to know that something was up. With the Demon King's rising coming so quickly, the circle needed to get back in tune with each other, but now seemed to be the worst timing ever.

They were all sitting in the old, rickety home in the forest, thinking in silence to themselves with no other sounds save the flittering of paper or the closing of books. Everyone was trying to come up with a new way to avoid the apocalypse with the Demon King, though nobody was really coming up with any concrete information on how to specifically stop the portal from opening.

Melissa was rifling through a large, beaten-up book, her eyebrows scrunched in concentration.

"I don't get it. I feel like if this dude was such a badass in the past, there should be some more text or history on him. Things that document what he did, how he came into existence, and ways for us to stop him," she closed the book, causing a dust cloud to expel from its pages, "it's as if this guy doesn't even exist. We've only ever found information from Diana's book of shadows, but even then that stuff was vague and brief."

Diana and Adam exchanged looks, but remained silent.

Jake coughed, "Well that just means we're not looking hard enough. Keep, uh… looking through whatever sources we have. I mean, didn't Cassie have a book of shadows?"

Cassie snapped out of her thoughts and nodded, "Yeah, I have my book. I'll check through it for whatever I can find."

She pulled her book out from her purse and began to read through it. Sometimes she kept her book locked away in her room, or hidden in a secret floorboard in the house, but at times like this when more dangerous things threatened to destroy them, she decided it may be more convenient to keep it on hand lest they need a spell from it.

Diana and Adam got up from the couch they were on and glanced at each other knowingly, "We're uh… going to go check the other room and read some of the scrolls that we haven't gone through just yet. We'll be back in a sec." They both left with Diana bringing her purse in tow as well.

Melissa could practically feel the tension hanging in the air between Faye and Cassie. Faye gave her a pleading look, but Melissa just gave her a sheepish smile.

"Hey Jake, I'm going to go check the basement for some more books, can you give me a hand?" Melissa asked nicely.

Jake looked at her oddly, "Why? I'm pretty sure you can find things on your own, and in case you haven't noticed…" he pointed to the open book that he had just picked up, "I'm kind of busy.

Melissa rolled her eyes and started to walk to the basement, nodding to him with a more serious, intense face, "I could _really_ use your help moving some of the heavier chests and boxes. Now."

Finally catching on, he sighed heavily and followed after her. As the two went downstairs, he whispered quietly, "What the hell is up with you?"

Melissa shook her head and frowned, "You're more dense than I thought Jake. Obviously Faye and Cassie have some things they need to sort out with each other. Didn't you notice?"

The taller boy knitted his brown in thought. He was thinking back to his night with Cassie, but he didn't know what that had to do with Faye. He lightly shrugged once more, "I don't know what's going on, but I'll find out sooner or later."

With the two of them gone, Cassie read through her family's book silently, continuing to ignore the fact that Faye was walking around the room absentmindedly flipping through random books that were lying around. They both were highly aware of each other's presence, but nobody was saying anything. There were a million thoughts racing through Faye's mind, and eventually, she could no longer hold it in. Walking over to behind where Cassie was sitting, Faye leaned over the chair and rested her arms on the back of the seat.

"Need some help there, princess?"

"Nope," Cassie chirped, "I'm doing just fine, thank you."

The blonde turned another page, and more silence ensued.

"Oookay… well, maybe you need help with translating something, hm?" Faye asked, slightly more perturbed this time.

"Nope."

"UGH!" Faye threw up her hands in frustration, "What the hell Cassie? It's one thing to not want to talk about something, but to not want to talk to me at all? I think _someone _is being a little childish here."

Cassie looked up at Faye, "Throwing a tantrum? Now _that_ seems a bit more childish, don't you think?"

Faye walked around the armchair and poked her finger into Cassie's chest continuously, each time more pressing than before and sent shockwaves through her body.

"Look. I know you told me that you didn't want to talk about it, so fine, you can tiptoe around the subject as much as you'd like. But you're going to have to face it eventually whether you like it or not." She continued to stare hard faced into Cassie's eyes, her eyes starting to glisten with emotion. She took a deep breath and backed away, standing up fully, but never breaking eye contact.

"I'll be waiting," said Faye.

And with that, she grabbed her things and stormed off, presumably back to her home, though she didn't let anybody from the circle know where she was headed off to. As she pounded her way down the stairs, she ran past Melissa and Jake who had come back from the basement with a few measly books in hand. Before she could say anything, Faye was already out of the house, slamming the old door behind her. Jake was about to run after her, but Melissa grabbed his arm and shook her head.

"Don't. We should get back upstairs," she said.

The two of them made their way back up and found Cassie sitting alone on the couch. Her eyes carried a glazed over look and though she had an open book on her lap it didn't seem as if she was even focusing on it at all.

"Cassie?" Melissa asked softly.

The blonde sniffled before flinching abruptly at the sound of her name; she quickly broke into a clearly large, and clearly empty smile.

"Oh, sorry, I didn't hear you guys coming up the stairs. I was just…reading this book," Cassie wiped her eyes hastily before standing up, "and yep, sure enough there doesn't seem to be any mention of the Demon King or the end of the world. Go figure."

Melissa and Jake exchanged glances. He was about to speak up but was interrupted when both Adam and Diana came into the room looking rather shifty.

"Hey, where's Faye?" asked Adam.

Cassie shrugged, "She left."

He cast an odd look at her before exhaling lightly, "Well then I guess now is the best time to bring this up." Adam looked at Diana, who nodded to him silently in response. He held an unassuming black book in his hands and showed the rest of the group, and he continued speaking in a hushed tone.

"I found a Book of Shadows."

Everyone's eyes widened instantly at the notion that another witch had found their coveted book.

"Only thing is that it wasn't mine; it was Faye's."

At this point, everyone was still shocked, though Cassie's attention was fully grabbed. Why did Adam have the Chamberlain's family book? The whole group started firing off question after question and it started to become quite an uproar until Diana took hold of the situation.

"Calm down, calm down! Adam found the book in his attic, and no, Faye doesn't know about this just yet. I mean, after all, we all know how she'd react if she had her family's book in her possession. While we will give it to her eventually, right now it is critical that we address the Demon King situation first so we have been reading through the book to try and find more information. Until the impending apocalypse is over, we decided that we'll be holding onto the book."

"Are you sure about this?" asked Cassie, "what if there is stuff in there that only Faye knows about? Wouldn't it be better if we did bring her in on this-"

"No," Diana cut her off, "she'll just be destructive with the book and I don't trust her with it. I mean, what if she just ends up abusing the spells that are in there? We don't even know the full potential of what might be stored within those pages!"

Cassie's gaze faltered slightly. She pursed her lips in concentration before shaking her head, "I don't believe that. I think she's a better person than you think."

"Look Cassie, I know you've become real close with her, but I think Diana is right on this one," Jake said as he took a step closer to the blonde, "I think it's better that Faye didn't know about this."

"I shouldn't know about what?"

Everyone's heads snapped around as they saw Faye standing at the top of the broken down stairwell. She was standing with her arms crossed and an emotionless expression.

"Faye! We thought you left!" exclaimed Melissa.

"Yeah, well, you thought wrong. I dropped my wallet here under the couch and I was going to get it tomorrow, but maybe it was a good thing that I came back to get it. Something seems to be so interesting and so secretive that you had to talk about this together without me. I wonder what that is, hm?"

The whole coven was dead silent. Nobody wanted to say anything, but it was in that stillness that Cassie grabbed the book out of Adam's hands and dashed over to Faye. It was a hectic scramble as the others shouted and tried to stop her, but the blonde was quick and she got into close proximity of Faye. She pressed the book into Faye's hands and leaned up close to whisper in her ear.

"Adam found it in his attic, but it's yours."

A look of bewilderment spread across Faye's features before she made the connection and grinned wildly. She leaned in close and whispered into Cassie's ear, her breath tickling the blonde's skin.

"I owe you one."

And with that, the taller witch made a hasty retreat down the stairs taking two at a time until she was out the door leaving the rest of the coven speechless at what had just happened. Seconds later, Adam exploded.

"WHAT THE HELL CASSIE!" He punched his fist into the wall causing it to crack and shutter before he pointed to the stairs and shouted loudly, "Someone go find her!"

The others were still slightly dumbstruck until Adam bellowed, "NOW!"

Jake was the first to nod and slowly started to jog down the stairs with Melissa following shortly after. Neither of them wanted to be there with Adam in rampage mode. Even Cassie herself was still shaking visibly from the shock of it all. She didn't know what possessed her in that moment to take the book and give it to Faye, but she just felt compelled to do it. Maybe it was making up for earlier, or perhaps it was just instinctual for her to want to help Faye, but either way, the coven no longer had the book as a resource and she was to blame for it all.

Adam glared at Cassie, his eyes narrowed and his jaw clenched. He had a vein popping near his temple, which under normal circumstances on any other given day would have been funny, but at this time, Cassie wanted nothing else than to be anywhere but here.

"You threw away our only source of information that could possibly stop the Demon King," he snarled.

Cassie grit her teeth and nodded firmly, "Well… I would do it again if I could. Faye doesn't deserve to be left in the dark, and she might find something that can help us all-"

"You're a fool Cassie," said Diana, "she won't be searching that book for things that will help us. She's always just looked out for herself and now that she has her family's book, there's no telling what she's going to do!"

"But I-"

"Whatever," Adam cut her off, "I don't want to hear it. Let's just hope that Melissa and Jake find her before she does something stupid."

And with that, he stormed off. Diana trailed behind him as she cast a disappointed look at Cassie before silently disappearing down the stairs.

Cassie exhaled deeply and her shoulders slumped. She walked over to the couch and found Faye's wallet underneath the furniture covered in dust. Opening the wallet up, she looked into Faye's piercing brown eyes on her driver's license before shaking her head.

"What have I done?"

* * *

><p>Several hours had passed but the coven had little luck in finding Faye. They went straight to her home but Mrs. Chamberlain shook her head stating that she hadn't showed up yet. Each person split up into pairs and went to go search in different places like the mall, the Boathouse bar and grill, and even the forest surrounding the old broken down house that they used as home base, however they could not find her.<p>

The group had met back up at the abandoned house, the books and scrolls long forgotten as they fervently brainstormed on places where the unpredictable witch could have gone, with Melissa going so far as to suggest putting out a search party via the local authorities to locate the girl.

Jake shook his head, "No, we can't do that even if we wanted to. Not enough time has passed for the cops to consider a missing persons report, or even bother sending out a patrol to try and find her; they'll just say that she went shopping or something."

"Think!" Adam fumed as he paced back and forth angrily, each step causing the old rickety floorboards to creak in protest, "where could she have possibly gone?"

Diana frowned, "We checked everywhere. The Boathouse, shopping districts, her home, and even within a half-mile radius of this location yet there's still no trace or hint of where she disappeared to. Don't we have like… some sort of tracking spell we can use?"

"I've got it!"

Cassie piped up rather loud and out of the blue, startling the others into looking at her oddly from her sudden outburst. The blonde blushed a little from the scrutiny and smiled in a more calm, collected manner, "I did learn of a tracking spell after reading through scrolls. I didn't know if it would come in handy or not, but I think it might just work." She fished Faye's wallet out from her pocket and held it flat in the palm of her hand. Narrowing her eyes in concentration at the small object, Cassie took a deep breath and chanted, "_Indica mihi_."

The wallet hummed to life and gained a small ethereal glow as it levitated slightly off her hand. After hovering in place for a few moments, the small object started slowly vibrating and turned blue.

"Woah, what the heck?" Said Melissa as her eyes widened in amazement at the display.

Cassie grinned, "Blue means cold. I had to use one of Faye's items as the kickstarter for the locator spell, but we just need to head in the direction that this wallet is pointing in and the closer we get, the redder the item becomes. C'mon, let's go!"

The crew kept close as Cassie led the way down the stairs and out of the rickety old house. Leaves rustled as a brisk gust of wind kicked up all around them. Rotating ever so slightly like a compass, the wallet wiggled in place as it hovered above her hand, indicating the direction in which its owner resided. Without wasting a breath, the coven darted off at full speed in that direction, not knowing where they were going or how far, or even what lay in store for them once they get there. Branches whipped at their skin as they vaulted over fallen logs, muddled water splashed in every direction with each hurried step, and not a single word was uttered with each passing moment.

Humming with more intensity, the wallet gradually morphed from an icy blue to a light purple, and then into a neon pink hue.

Cassie slowed her pace so that the group could catch their breath, and she eyed the wallet with dreaded concern. She had faith in Faye, despite the rest of the coven's thoughts and opinions, but it still didn't shake this deep seeded feeling of fear that started to take root in the pit of her stomach. By now Faye must be reading through the book with a fervent voracity knowing full well that the rest of them would track her the instant she fled the building, and with them not knowing where she escaped to that would've bought her extra precious time. Cassie only hoped that Faye found a solution for the Demon King before Adam or Diana confiscated the book from her indefinitely.

"C'mon Cassie, we can't stop now. The wallet is nearly red, so she must be nearby," Jake wheezed between words as he tried to catch his breath from running.

Melissa's eyes widened as she saw in the distance a glowing pillar of light. Even through all the trees in the forest, it was like a hideous beacon signaling their impending doom.

"Guys, I think I know where she is," she pointed to the ominous light and everyone's expression fell into despair.

Adam started stomping around and ran a hand through his hair, his eyes shut tight and eyebrows furrowed in frustration, "Are we too late?! We have no fucking idea how to stop the Demon King, and I'm pretty damn sure he's supposed to be coming through some portal tonight. And unless my eyes are deceiving me, that looks like a goddamn portal to me."

Diana put a hand on his shoulder for reassurance, "Look, we don't know what that is. For all we know that's just Faye messing up on a spell or something."

Upon hearing those words, Adam stopped dead in his tracks. His eyes shot open in realization, "Or, for all we know, Faye is helping to open the portal."

"No, stop it!" Cassie shouted instantly, "Faye wouldn't do that! She's one of us!"

"She is a power hungry, conniving witch who is willing to throw us under the bus if that means she gains something out of it!" Adam bellowed back, "How do we know she isn't the one opening right this very instant to get something in return from the Demon King? Immortality? Infinite magic?"

"You're twisted!" Cassie spat back, her eyes filled with unyielding faith.

Jake walked up to her and tried to comfort her, but Cassie swatted away his hand.

"Don't touch me!"

She bolted off into the direction of the light and she shouted back at them, "You all think she's a bad person, but you're wrong!"

"Cassie wait!"

The Coven chased after her, but it seemed like Cassie had boundless amounts of energy since her pace had seemingly quickened instead of lightened up.

As they trailed behind her, the trees up ahead thinned in density until they found themselves in an open clearing with a large stone archway nearly thirty feet tall in the center. The arch looked absolutely ancient; moss draped down and spilled over the edges all along the entire structure, deep cracks riddled it to the point where it was a wonder that it still stood. And in the clearing, a familiar brunette stood holding a book.

"I knew it!" Adam shouted, "She couldn't be trusted with the book!"

His voice snapped her attention to the rest of the group, her eyes widened like a deer caught in headlights and she slammed the book shut.

"Stay back!" shouted Faye, her eyes wild and filled with concern.

"No," Adam exclaimed, "this is all your fault!"

He dashed towards her, but all Faye did was scream.

Within seconds, Adam's body went flying backwards by an invisible force, which knocked the wind out of him completely as he scraped and jostled against the ground like a ragdoll before skidding to a halt completely unconscious. Tree roots erupted out of the ground like earthen snakes and coiled around his limbs, essentially pinning him to the ground should he wake up.

A deep, rich chuckle filled the air and the platinum blonde man with crimson eyes appeared from behind one of the archway's bases.

"You should have listened to your friend here."

He snapped his fingers and similar roots burst out of the ground in every direction and constricted each person, including Faye. No matter how hard they pulled or thrashed about, the root-like vines coiled around their legs and arms holding them firmly in place.

Struggling against the constricting roots, Melissa frowned, "You'll never get away with this!"

The Harbinger's body became a blur as he teleported instantly. With his face mere inches away from hers, he simply smiled venomously.

"Oh dearie, I already have. You see, the gate is nearly open, and the only thing that's left is the key."

Whipping his head around, his arm outstretched and palm open, he directed his gaze at Faye and gestured upwards. The roots that constrained Faye ripped upwards and began to move her directly in front of the glowing archway, all the while attempting to thrash about in order to escape.

"Faye no!" Cassie shrieked, but her efforts to escape the death grip of the roots were proving futile.

The Harbinger grinned and closed his palm into a tight fist. Faye's body immediately contorted and she screamed in excruciating agony as lights emitted from her eyes, and a thick, ghostly trail began to leak out of her mouth. The spectral cloudy stream began to flow into the archway and the bright light escalated into a blinding, unbearable sight.

"With her soul, the portal will finally be unlocked."

"NO!"

Cassie's eyes clouded over into a completely obsidian sheen and she screeched at the Harbinger. Her high pitched shriek turned tangible as it caused a shockwave that pummeled him over and subsequently obliterated the roots holding Faye in place. Her body fell to the ground, but that was enough to break whatever magic had been pulling her soul out of her. Shooting a glare down at the roots that constricted her, black flames materialized simply from thought and disintegrated the offending earthen vines like it was nothing.

A look of utter surprise was plastered all over the Harbinger's expression as he stood up from the ground. Though initially dumbstruck, he recovered rather quickly. In one swift motion, he raised his arm up while simultaneously summoning his spear and he chucked it at Cassie aiming to impale her where she stood. She instantly lifted both hands up, and in doing so a large chunk of earth rose with them. The spear embedded not in her, but rather in the thick shield made of dense rock.

The rest of the Coven could do nothing but look on in horror as Cassie showed a side that they seldom witnessed, and it was scaring them beyond anything they could have imagined.

With her eyes still blank as an abyss, she thrust her hands forward and the rock wall with the spear still embedded in it, raced along the ground towards the Harbinger, tearing up other dirt and stones as it ripped its way across the earth. Though he could see it coming, what he couldn't predict was the second stonewall that rose up from behind and pushed him forward, and with both walls coming together he quickly became sandwiched between the two slabs.

Cassie's magical vice-like grip on him held him firmly in place as she gradually walked up to him with a sinister air around her.

Stopping a couple feet in front of him, she remained expressionless, her eyes blank as the night.

"Tell me how to close the portal."

"Never."

He made a minute motion with his wrist, and a rock flew at her head, but with a careless flick her hand Cassie broke it to pieces just like the roots and simultaneously lifted her other arm and motioned away from her body in a horizontal chopping motion. A dark sanguine fluid showered the ground as his arm was torn from its socket, drawing a scream from him and both Diana and Melissa. The sheer brutality startled the girls and they nearly collapsed from shock.

Faye rubbed her head and started to regain her senses once more. Her blurry vision shook back into focus in time to witness a staggering scene.

Tilting her head to the side, Cassie repeated again in a calm voice.

"How do I close the portal?"

He spat in her face.

Wrong decision.

She made a mirrored motion to before and off his other arm went, the limb made a sickeningly dull thud as it plopped to the ground in a puddle of shimmering liquid.

"Cassie stop!"

Faye's voice immediately snapped her out of whatever trance she was in. Cassie's pitch black eyes returned to their crystal clear aquamarine and she became hyper aware of her surroundings. She covered her mouth in horror at what she had done.

"Oh my god no."

Running over to Faye, she knelt down and looked her in the eyes.

"Are you okay?"

Rubbing her eyes, Faye nodded, "Yeah, but… promise me you won't do that – that weird thing again."

Pulling her into a hug, Cassie whispered, "Promise."

Behind them, the Harbinger let out a ghastly bellow, "DO NOT THINK THAT THIS IS OVER!"

With his normally neat and slicked back platinum blonde hair in complete disarray, and no arms left to fight with, his body was in a weakened state. Cassie reached for Faye's hand and gently squeezed it. The strong, jolting connection between the two sparked up stronger than ever, and they looked into each other's eyes knowingly. Together in unison, they shouted.

"Return to your power confined!"

A glowing emblem formed beneath his feat, and in a brilliant flare of light, his being began fading away until he was no more.

The roots that were constricting the rest of the coven crumbled into ashes as the Harbinger became permanently sealed away to the dimension from whence he came.

"You… You guys did it!" Melissa came running over to the pair and gave them both a tight hug. Adam slowly was regaining consciousness from being knocked out earlier, but Diana and Jake were helping him move towards the two.

Cassie gazed into Faye's eyes and smiled fondly, "Yeah, I guess we did."

Being in each other's arms was making their skin feel electric, and it was this close contact that they had missed so much. This burning feeling to be near each other, to be with one another, was becoming an almost overbearing weight of emotion that she could barely stand to hold back any longer. Cassie's urge to kiss Faye was almost indulged, until she noticed that something was off.

"Faye?"

She stared at her friend who seemed to have a hollow expression.

"Faye what's wrong?"

The taller witch furrowed her brow, "I'm so sorry."

She clapped her hands together causing all of them but herself to get stuck to one another back to back in a circular fashion, as if they were bound to a pole by an invisible rope.

"Faye, what's going on?!" Cassie implored her friend to shed light on what she was doing.

Turning to face the still glowing archway, Faye sighed, her shoulders heavy and her expression grim.

"I'm so sorry Cassie, but I have to do this."

Adam, now pretty much awake and now aware of what was going on, had enough wherewithal to speak up, "Do what? What are you about to do?"

"I know how to close the portal, no thanks to you Adam," Faye muttered. "I had enough time to read through my family's book, and it luckily contained all the information we needed to prevent this portal from opening, how to open it if we needed, as well as how to close it. But this requires a heavy price."

At the mention of a heavy price, Diana's eyes widened in fear, "No, Faye, you don't know what you're doing! I mean, I'm sorry that we didn't have faith in you before, but please, you don't need to do this!"

"Oh just shut it. Even until the end, you still don't believe in me."

Faye turned back around to face the rest of the group and walked up to Cassie. Despite all their eyes on her, she closed the gap and their lips came together in a soft yet desperate kiss. All but Melissa were surprised, and Jake even stuttered a "what the fuck?" but regardless Faye whispered sadly into Cassie's ear.

"I guess the book was wrong."

And with that, she turned back around and jumped into the portal with nobody to stop her.

The moment her body hit the glowing beacon, the same thing that occurred earlier repeated itself but in fast forward motion. What looked like her soul was instantaneously purged from her body, and the glowing light retracted and shrank until the archway no longer was lit. It had happened in the blink of an eye, and in that moment, the invisible ropes that were binding the coven together dissipated and Faye's body fell to the ground motionless.

"NO!" Cassie screamed and dove forward to cradle Faye in her arms.

She gently tapped her cheek, while muttering "no, no, no" over and over. Her hands were shaking, tears already welling up in her eyes, and yet she didn't want to believe that this was how it would end. They had defeated the villain, they had prevented pretty much an apocalypse from befalling this world, and what? Just so that she would be alone?

Cassie clutched Faye's body closer before gross sobs racked her body and she could no longer hold it back.

"I hate you Faye!"

Rocking back and forth, she wept. That was all she could do.

Faye always had some sort of snarky comeback, and yet now, her deathly silence was the worst retort that she could ever imagine.

Embracing her even tighter, Cassie sniffled.

"Why did you have to leave me?"

Nobody uttered a word.

Though they now understood the relationship between the two girls, this realization came at the most inopportune times. It had really ended before it could begin, and nobody knew how to comfort Cassie. Comforting her was always Faye's job.

Melissa put her hand on Cassie's shoulder.

"She saved us. She saved the whole world, you know."

The blonde choked out another sob and nodded.

"But I couldn't save her."

Not able to bear looking at her forlorn figure, they cast their gaze away and solemnly stared at the ground. Dianna saw a little beaten up book and her eyes widened.

"Wait, the book!"

They all turned, their curiosity piqued.

"Quick, lets look through it. Maybe there's… maybe there's something in there that can save her!"

"But Diana," Adam started, "You said it could possibly be dark magic and that – "

"To hell with what I said!" She interrupted him, "If we can bring her back, it's worth a try to look!"

She picked it up and started thumbing through the pages to see if anything caught her eye. It was nothing but diagrams, old text in dead languages that she couldn't decipher, and scribbles here and there. Nothing seemed to make sense, and with each passing moment, hope was slowly slipping away.

"Diana, I don't think anything is in there –"

"A hah!"

Holding the book open to a two-page spread, it showed a small, faded picture of a body lying down and then another picture with the same body standing up.

"This has to be something, right? We need to try it!"

They all looked at each other skeptically, but figured it was worth a shot. Forming a circle around Faye, they concentrated all their efforts and chanted in unison.

"_Deviare. Deviare. Deviare."_

A small breeze kicked up and stirred the area, but nothing of note was happening.

"_Deviare. Deviare. Deviare."_

Nothing.

Jake with what looked like tears in his eyes, threw his hands down at his side and then rustled his hair in anger, "This isn't working!"

"Maybe it doesn't work because we don't have Faye with us," Melissa murmured, "we're not a complete Coven without her."

Cassie's eyes widened.

Wiping her tears, not caring that she looked a mess, she broke the circle and knelt down next to Faye's body. If they were able to bring Melissa back from the deep sleep on their own, who's to say that she can't do this spell on Faye? If they had as strong a connection as she thought, then it was worth a shot. Placing both hands onto Faye's chest as if she were about to do chest compressions, Cassie scrunched her eyes shut and shouted.

"_DEVIARE!"_

Her hands lit up in a brilliant supernova of color, and while she suddenly felt the life start to drain from her, she also noticed it was happening around her as well.

Whatever grass and greenery that encompassed the forest began to whither away and started to funnel to Faye's body in a radial design. Trees began to lose all their color, then their leaves, before finally disintegrating. The dirt became drier than normal, the rocks crumbled into nothingness. The entire forest was beginning to die, and even Cassie felt it pulling from her body too, but with each passing moment, she could feel a small electric pulse get stronger and stronger.

"Cassie stop, you're hurting yourself!" Jake exclaimed.

"No, I don't care!"

Cassie kept her hold on the spell as sweat formed on her brow. She could feel herself getting weaker and weaker, but each passing moment the pulse that vibrated beneath her hand began to resonate with her whole being, and then when she almost felt her last breath leave her body, Faye's chest expanded and she took a deep breath of her own.

Her eyes shot open and she started coughing violently, but those coughs were a beautiful sign of life.

Though weak in her own state, Cassie started crying once more, but with tears of joy. She burst out into joyous laughter and practically smashed her body onto Faye's in a tight embrace.

"You're alive!"

Faye was still coughing, and Cassie lying on her chest was not helping matters.

"If you – if you don't get off me, I'm going to… to suffocate. Fatass," Faye weakly sputtered.

Cassie's lips came crashing down onto Faye's and it was like the world around them ceased to exist. With each touch and every kiss, it was an electrifying euphoric moment that nobody could take away from them, and it was only a connection that they shared. The Harbinger was sealed away and the portal was closed for good; there was nothing left in their way.

Pulling away but staying within a couple inches of her face, Cassie was breathing heavily and smiled.

"I guess we were written in the stars after all."


End file.
